During the 1960s, he was appointed governor and secretary of the coordination committee of Bizerte, which made him an ex-officio member of the central committee of the Destiny Socialist Party (PSD) after the Congress of Destiny held in Bizerte in 1964 and then he becomes successively governor of Sfax and Gabes.

He later became CEO of the National Fisheries Office and then adviser to the cabinet of Prime Minister Hédi Nouira.

On 7 November 1987, he replaced Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who had just deposed President Bourguiba, as Prime Minister and Secretary General of the PSD.

Baccouche was appointed by President Ben Ali as a member of the Chamber of Advisers when it was created in 2005.

He was also a member of the central committee of the ruling Democratic Constitutional Rally, until the dissolution of this body on 20 January 2011, in the context of the Tunisian revolution.