TUNIS, Tunisia — Like many Tunisian young people, Safouan el-Euchi proudly joined the 2011 protests that toppled the country’s dictator and lit the fires of the Arab Spring uprisings that spread across the Middle East.

But life since has been hard. His engineering degree has failed to get him a job, and prices are soaring. And though he votes at each opportunity, he wonders when the benefits of democracy will reach people like him.

“Life has gotten worse — more debt, more crime,” Mr. el-Euchi said after voting in Tunisia’s presidential election on Sunday. “How does freedom help us if there are no jobs?”

Sunday’s vote was another milestone in Tunisia’s transition from 22 years of dictatorship into the Arab world’s purest democracy. Although economic troubles and jihadist attacks have marred its progress, Tunisia has worked to remain an island of political openness — and perhaps a model for others — in a region of wars, monarchs, strongmen and sectarian divides.