ABSTRACT
Breakdowns of the two succeeding electoral cycles underscore the profound discomfiture of the Haitian polity and the somewhat feckless attitudes of international actors that frame it. The multivariate legacy of instability has generated a frustrating search for political change and democratic governance—framed by weak political institutions, an absence of coherent economic policy making, and an overburdened social infrastructure. The challenges facing the Haitian state trace back to a flourishing plantation colony characterized by extraordinary wealth and deep social and racial divisions. Saint-Domingue, as Haiti was then known, was the crown jewel of France's overseas empire, fueled by the importation of more than 800,000 African slaves. Haiti drew the attention of an emerging Congressional Black Caucus and others on Capitol Hill, driven in part by the differentiated treatment of Haitian refugee flows—as opposed to Cuban refugees—in the early 1980s.
