Haiti: Hope for a Fragile State

1. The Fall of Aristide and Haiti's Current Predicament

To understand Haiti’s authoritarian and turbulent politics—only seven of its forty-four presidents have served out their terms, and there have been only two peaceful transitions of power since the beginning of the republic— it is critical to analyze the material and historical circumstances of the colonial period. French colonialism generated an authoritarian tradition rooted in the legacy of the plantation economy. Based on slavery, this economy created a real dilemma for Haiti’s founding leaders, a dilemma that was never resolved satisfactorily. There has always been a very clear link between economic structure and political system in Haiti. For instance, immediately after gaining independence in 1804, the country’s founders confronted a cruel choice. They needed to restart a devastated economy and yet the material foundation on which emancipation could flourish was itself inimical to individual freedom. Material recovery depended on agricultural exports—primarily sugar—based on plantation production, which in turn required coercive forms of labour. Haiti’s founding fathers, Toussaint, Dessalines, Christophe, and Pétion, were all bent on revitalizing this mode of production, but this posed a crucial dilemma: how to reconcile the safeguard of emancipation and the former slaves’ aspirations to become an independent peasantry with the drastic labour discipline required by the plantation economy. If they preserved emancipation by supporting the former slaves’ aspirations to become independent peasants, they would ultimately condemn the country to material underdevelopment. If they promoted an immediate economic recovery, Haiti’s rulers would be The Fall of Aristide and Haiti’s Current Predicament ROBERT FATTON, JR. 1 15 01_fatton.qxd 2006/04/11 10:59 AM Page 15 compelled to impose a military-like discipline on the newly freed masses, thereby restricting emancipation itself. Thus, in spite of ending slavery, the Haitian revolution and its subsequent defense reinforced militaristic patterns of behavior and a hierarchical social structure. Top officers not only gave orders and expected obedience but they reaped the spoils of power. They greatly benefited from the state’s grossly unequal redistribution of land, with which they sought to establish themselves as a new class of planters. It is true, however, that the attempt to restore the plantation system was not completely self-serving; it responded also to a question of survival, of generating resources for a strong military to defend Haiti’s independence . Haitian rulers had good reasons to fear the aggression of the great powers of the time. As defenders of white supremacy, these powers abhorred the first successful black revolution against slavery and feared the revolution’s consequences for their respective empires. The contradictions of the plantation system, the hostility of western imperial forces, and the class aspirations of Haitian leaders created a historical fissure between a militaristic state of the few and the wider society of the many. In this sense, at the very beginning of independence, a class society was created . There was also the question of colour; mulattos have historically enjoyed more status, privileges, and wealth than the black majority and this reality has generated political tension and conflict between the two groups. The practice of exploiting colour for political ends has always played a major role in Haitian history and continues to reflect the persistence of racial divisions and inequalities inherited from the colonial period. Haiti’s authoritarian tradition is therefore rooted in the legacies of colonial domination and anti-colonial resistance as well as in the vicissitudes of the early period of independence. This tradition, however, is only part of the story. The revolution itself and the struggles of the newly freed slaves to escape the harsh discipline of the plantation economy are clear symbols of the Haitian quest for liberty. In fact, former slaves resisted the attempted restoration of the plantations. They dreamt of agrarian egalitarianism and wanted to own some land, on which they could subsist independently. Thus, emancipation generated the eventual abandonment of the estate economy and the rise of a smallholding peasantry. Haitian rulers were incapable of imposing the rigid discipline required by the plantation system; former slaves could not be easily compelled into a new servitude, having the opportunity to exit the plantation cage and become marrons—individuals suspicious of the state and fleeing its authoritarianism. Freedom in this sense implied freedom from any central authority, representative, or otherwise. Thus, the plantation system 16 | ROBERT FATTON, JR. 01_fatton.qxd 2006/04/11 10:59 AM Page 16 gradually collapsed and Haiti...