The political economy of statebuilding in Haiti

Haiti’s transition from autocratic to democratic governance from the late twentieth to the early twenty-first century has been marred by chronic violence. The country’s public institutions – especially those concerned with the provision of justice and security services – lurched alternately between collapse and crisis (Collier 2011; Muggah 2008). And to the distress of the international donor community, the cumulative efforts of no less than six United Nations peace support missions over the past three decades have yielded few returns. ¹ Notwithstanding repeated attempts by foreigners to foment a social contract and reciprocal rights and obligations between the country’s elite and its poorer masses, Haitian politics continues to be governed by a zero-sum mentality. Over two decades of externally led statebuilding and tens of billions of dollars later, Haitians are as divided, excluded, and impoverished as they have ever been.