ABSTRACT
Judged by tradi t ional wes te rn s tandards of democracy and economic welfare, Haiti during the past twenty-five years has remained by far the least developed Latin American nation. T h e extent of popular influence on poHtics has been ml, and the standard of living of the vast majority of the Haitians has remained precariously low Quite probably it has decreased.1 Both these facts are intimately connected with the character of the Haitian state and with the role the government has played in the economy. While orthodox writings in political science and development economics tend to stress the importance of 'positive' action by the polity as being essential for the achievement of democracy and economic progress, in Haiti we witness a process which runs in the completely opposite direction. The state, both from the political and from the economic point of view, appears as an 'anomaly' As such, however, it obeys its own inner logic, which must be spelled out explicitly if we are to achieve a proper understanding of the past and present Haitian society.
