The Prophet and Power: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the International Community, and Haiti (review)

The expulsion of Jean-Claude Duvalier from the reigns of political power in Haiti in 1986 ended the Duvalier dictatorship and opened a new era in the history of Haiti. The early years of the post-Duvalier period were characterized by the presence of an imposing popular movement aiming at the eradication of the conditions of inequality and oppression that had been sustained by the combined involvement of the dictatorship and the Haitian ruling class, and by rise of Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide to the leadership of that movement. The Prophet and Power is a meticulously researched text making sense of the three lustrums that followed, from the election of Aristide as president of Haiti in 1990 to his banishing from the Haitian political scene in 2004.

Dupuy enjoys a high standing for his serious scholarship in the field of Haitian studies. He is the author of two important works on the political economy of Haiti in its relationship with the world system (Dupuy 1987; 1997). This book is an account of a confusing period in the contemporary political life of Haiti, the social forces informing the struggle for the control of the State, and the failure of the charismatic priest turned politician to sustain the aims of democracy and social justice that were central for the Haitian masses since the mid-1980s.

As with his other works, Dupuy’s argument is centered in two key analytical ingredients that he sets forth in the first two chapters. Chapter 1, “Globalization, the ‘New World Order Imperialism,’ and Haiti,” is an analysis of the historical connections of Haiti to the world capitalist system and its international community of actors; Chapter 2, “Before Aristide: Class Power, State Power, and the Duvalier Dictatorships, 1957–1990,” examines the relationship between social classes and the state in historical perspective. As the author shows, since the early years of political activity, when the prophet was committed to an egalitarian society, he was immediately confronted by the legacy of what he calls the “prebendary state” in Haiti, which has been historically concerned with benefiting a fraction of the ruling class through state corruption rather than with its sustaining role in the process of private capital accumulation. The four remaining chapters chart the ascent and downfall of the prophet: (3) “The Prophet Armed: The Popular Movement for democracy and the Rise of Jean-Bertrand Aristide”; (4) “The Prophet Disarmed: The First Lavalas Government and Its Overthrow”; (5) “The Prophet Checkmated: The Political Opposition and the Low-Intensity War Against Aristide”; (6) “The Prophet Banished: The Second Overthrow of Aristide and the Pacification of Haiti.” The book also includes an extensive list of references.

For Dupuy, the political arena in Haiti following the departure of Jean Claude Duvalier in 1986 involved the struggle of various social forces and political actors with distinct political objectives. First and foremost, the Duvalierist and neo Duvalierist forces in their attempt to provide continuity to the dictatorship through the repression of the mass movement that emerged as a result of the dismantling of the Duvalierist state and the imposition of a military rule. Second, the author identifies a social force, formed by Haitian entrepreneurs embracing the Washington Consensus that promoted the neo-liberal outlook of the international financial institutions based in Washington during the early 1980s (such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank), who sought an opportunity to insert Haiti in the logic of laissez faire capitalist economics. Third, the popular movement that emerged in the 1980s from the dispossessed classes in their struggle for democracy and equality. Moreover, the author argues that the struggle that took place over the transformation of the State in Haiti after the fall of Duvalier manifested two distinct conceptions of democracy: a minimalist version, advocating the traditional political rights ingrained in liberal conceptions of democracy, and the maximalist conception...