Tunisians are out in the streets for a fourth day of protests as a new constitution is being drafted for the nation.

Although national elections have already been held, calm has not yet returned to the nation that ignited the “Arab Spring” across the Middle East.

Former long-time President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country in January when a popular uprising swelled beyond his ability to quell it, and interim government leaders have spent the following months trying with limited success to maintain calm in the country.

The reasons are complex, and the prognosis for future sucess guarded at best.

Tunisia is one of the few Arab nations that has managed to maintain the delicate balance between secularists and Islamists, and has even for the most part kept peaceful relations with its tiny ancient Jewish population as well.

The population now fears the incoming sweep of the Islamist Ennahda party, which won 89 of the 217 seats in the constituent assembly drawing up the constitutional document. The party’s second-in-command, Hammadi Jebali reportedly will take the helm as the country’s new prime minister. The question is whether he will attempt to also become a caliph — an Islamic leader of a state ruled by Shari’a, or Islamic law.

Meanwhile, Tunisia’s tourism industry, an economic mainstay for the nation, has been dead in the water due to the uprising. The country’s phosphate industry has likewise taken a nosedive in production due to nationwide strikes.

More than 100,000 Tunisians who had gone to live in Libyan raced home when that country erupted into civil war following the “Jasmine Revolution” in their own nation — and few of them have found jobs since they arrived.

On Saturday, Mustapha Kamel Nabli, governor of Tunisia’s central bank was quoted by the TAP news agency as saying the country’s growth this year will be zero — and its unemployment may spike to 18 percent.

What ignited the Jasmine Revolution and has led to the demise of four Arab governments so far?

Economic hardship in Tunisia – and the anger and desperation of a poor man unable to make a living, whose last act was public self-immolation.