ABSTRACT
Reducing the pressures that have lead Haitians to emigrate will require a development strategy that is more responsive to the economic and political circumstances of the poor majority than to the demands of the international market. Like the international agencies' export-led development strategy, an economic democracy strategy would be based on the notion that economic pluralism can lead to political pluralism. The international agencies have earmarked an increasing portion of their rural and urban aid resources for entrepreneurs who will create new assembly and agro-industrial processing plants. The reason most frequently given by the international agencies for promoting Haiti's economic growth on the basis of export-oriented production is that the country's resources and markets are too small and poor to sustain domestically-oriented development. The key test of participatory approaches to development comes when traditional vested economic and political interests are challenged or threatened by poor people's organizations.
