Politics and Power in Haiti

Politics and Power in Haiti PDF Author: K. Quinn
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781137311993
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Examining the political legacies of the Duvalier period and after, and revisiting the work of the late David Nicholls, Politics and Power in Haiti provides some of the keys to understanding the turbulent world of Haitian politics and the persistent challenges at home and from abroad which have distorted development.

Politics and Power in Haiti

Politics and Power in Haiti PDF Author: K. Quinn
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781137311993
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
Examining the political legacies of the Duvalier period and after, and revisiting the work of the late David Nicholls, Politics and Power in Haiti provides some of the keys to understanding the turbulent world of Haitian politics and the persistent challenges at home and from abroad which have distorted development.

Politics and Power in Haiti

Politics and Power in Haiti PDF Author: K. Quinn
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137312009
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Examining the political legacies of the Duvalier period and after, and revisiting the work of the late David Nicholls, Politics and Power in Haiti provides some of the keys to understanding the turbulent world of Haitian politics and the persistent challenges at home and from abroad which have distorted development.

Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti

Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti PDF Author: Jeb Sprague
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1583673032
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
In this path-breaking book, Jeb Sprague investigates the dangerous world of right-wing paramilitarism in Haiti and its role in undermining the democratic aspirations of the Haitian people. Sprague focuses on the period beginning in 1990 with the rise of Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and the right-wing movements that succeeded in driving him from power. Over the ensuing two decades, paramilitary violence was largely directed against the poor and supporters of Aristide’s Lavalas movement, taking the lives of thousands of Haitians. Sprague seeks to understand how this occurred, and traces connections between paramilitaries and their elite financial and political backers, in Haiti but also in the United States and the Dominican Republic. The product of years of original research, this book draws on over fifty interviews—some of which placed the author in severe danger—and more than 11,000 documents secured through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. It makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of Haiti today, and is a vivid reminder of how democratic struggles in poor countries are often met with extreme violence organized at the behest of capital.

The Spirits and the Law

The Spirits and the Law PDF Author: Kate Ramsey
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226703819
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 446

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Book Description
Vodou has often served as a scapegoat for Haiti’s problems, from political upheavals to natural disasters. This tradition of scapegoating stretches back to the nation’s founding and forms part of a contest over the legitimacy of the religion, both beyond and within Haiti’s borders. The Spirits and the Law examines that vexed history, asking why, from 1835 to 1987, Haiti banned many popular ritual practices. To find out, Kate Ramsey begins with the Haitian Revolution and its aftermath. Fearful of an independent black nation inspiring similar revolts, the United States, France, and the rest of Europe ostracized Haiti. Successive Haitian governments, seeking to counter the image of Haiti as primitive as well as contain popular organization and leadership, outlawed “spells” and, later, “superstitious practices.” While not often strictly enforced, these laws were at times the basis for attacks on Vodou by the Haitian state, the Catholic Church, and occupying U.S. forces. Beyond such offensives, Ramsey argues that in prohibiting practices considered essential for maintaining relations with the spirits, anti-Vodou laws reinforced the political marginalization, social stigmatization, and economic exploitation of the Haitian majority. At the same time, she examines the ways communities across Haiti evaded, subverted, redirected, and shaped enforcement of the laws. Analyzing the long genealogy of anti-Vodou rhetoric, Ramsey thoroughly dissects claims that the religion has impeded Haiti’s development.

Haiti

Haiti PDF Author: Brian Weinstein
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description


Haiti's Predatory Republic

Haiti's Predatory Republic PDF Author: Robert Fatton
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
ISBN: 9781588260857
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
With the collapse of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986 came optimistic hopes for a transition toward a sound democracy, accompanied by economic development and social peace--a vision which has failed to materialize in the past 15 years. A native of Haiti, Fatton (government, U. of Virginia) analyzes Haitian politics from 1986 to 2001, revealing the complications and conflicts which have slowed the country's progress toward an effective democracy. The author also explores alternatives which could lead the country toward success. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Haiti

Haiti PDF Author: Aaron L. Segal
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Political systems seek to bring about improvement in people's lives; but politics in Haiti has only made the Haitians' lives worse. The notion that politics has failed the Haitian people is explored in this in-depth and balanced analysis of Haiti covering the government, economics, history, external relations, social structures, and future possibilities. The Haitian people have significant self-respect gained from independence in 1804 and sustained by widespread ownership of the land. While other books portray Haiti as a passive victim of U.S./capitalist manipulations, this book identifies the causes of widespread poverty and political instability as the result of multiple external and internal factors centered in the elite-mass relationship, with the resourcefulness of the people blocked by greedy governments. While the authors agree that we have made some mistakes in our relationship with Haiti, they do not blame the United States for Haiti's worst political failure, the Duvalierist system. The authors conclude that if the new government of President Aristide keeps its promises, Haiti can improve. Essential to Haiti's recovery are closer ties to the Caribbean and to the EEC, along with a continuing relationship with the United States. In showing readers the broad historical and cultural patterns in Haiti, the authors contend that while Haiti may seem to be hopeless, its situation economically and politically can be improved. The portrait of the Haitian people is one of self-reliance and creativity, a people eager for free enterprise. Since 1986, Haiti has encountered a favorable external context with the prospect of help from Europe and North America. The Duvalier regime grew out of Haitian realities, and with the help of external relations, the new government may be able to change those realities that still haunt the nation. Scholars and journalists interested in Latin American and Caribbean development, and students of comparative politics and third world countries, will find this study essential reading.

Democratic Insecurities

Democratic Insecurities PDF Author: Erica James
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520947916
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Democratic Insecurities focuses on the ethics of military and humanitarian intervention in Haiti during and after Haiti's 1991 coup. In this remarkable ethnography of violence, Erica Caple James explores the traumas of Haitian victims whose experiences were denied by U.S. officials and recognized only selectively by other humanitarian providers. Using vivid first-person accounts from women survivors, James raises important new questions about humanitarian aid, structural violence, and political insecurity. She discusses the politics of postconflict assistance to Haiti and the challenges of promoting democracy, human rights, and justice in societies that experience chronic insecurity. Similarly, she finds that efforts to promote political development and psychosocial rehabilitation may fail because of competition, strife, and corruption among the individuals and institutions that implement such initiatives.

Damming the Flood

Damming the Flood PDF Author: Peter Hallward
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1789601150
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description
Long before a devastating earthquake hit in January 2010, Haiti was one of the most impoverished and oppressed countries in the world. However, in the late 1980s a remarkable popular mobilization known as Lavalas ("the flood") sought to liberate the island from decades of US-backed dictatorial rule. Damming the Flood analyzes how and why the Lavalas governments led by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide were overthrown, in 1991 and again in 2004, by the enemies of democracy in Haiti and abroad. The elaborate campaign to suppress Lavalas was perhaps the most successful act of imperial sabotage since the end of the Cold War. It has left the people of Haiti at the mercy of some of the most rapacious political and economic forces on the planet. Updated with a substantial new afterword that addresses the international response to the earthquake, Damming the Flood is both an invaluable account of recent Haitian history and an illuminating analysis of twenty-first-century imperialism.

Voodoo and Politics in Haiti

Voodoo and Politics in Haiti PDF Author: Michel S. Laguerre
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349199206
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Not only does this book give a well-researched account of the politicization of Haitian Voodoo and the Voodooization of Haitian politics, it also lays the ground for the development of creative policies by the state vis-a-vis the cult. It is an indispensable research tool for the students of Afro-American, Caribbean and African societies in particular, and for religionists and political scientists in general.