Latin America and the Caribbean is a region of relative state stability. A map of failed states published in 2009 shows that when compared to the rest of the world, this region is actually quite stable. While there are some weak states, no states have failed save for one outlier. That outlier is Haiti, a country that has faced constant chaos and instability for quite some time. Here I will give a brief overview of what has gone wrong in Haiti and what can be done to help the country better its economic and political stability.
The main basis behind Haiti’s struggles as a state can be attributed to its government. Haiti has been defined by its political instability since the brutal regimes of Duvalier and his son ended in 1986. The time period of then until now has consisted of many different faction fighting for power. Political parties have typically ignored the interests of the majority of the Haitian population and instead set their sights on personal gain and glory. With the corrupt nature of the elections in Haiti it has thus been near impossible to get the country out of the black hole it is currently in, even with a whopping 6.9 billion dollars in aid coming in from a variety of countries between 1990 and 2008. However, the government has only directly received about 10 percent of this, and of that 10 percent just a slight fraction has been put to assisting major problems in the country.
The solutions to fixing Haiti are much easier said than done. While I will later devote a post specifically to solutions, here I’ll outline a few general ones that would help Haiti become less of a failed state. The first in foremost is concentrating all aid of the biggest problems. Several countries that have aided Haiti for a number of years are growing weary of seeing their money go to waste, and if neither the Haitian government nor the UN officials assisting in Haiti can start to channel the aid towards combatting poverty and hunger as well as infrastructure, the donating countries might cease their aid. One argument is that with aid Haiti should bail out its private sector. In jumpstarting the economy one might hope that it would be easier to sustain a higher level of stability as a country. The most obvious and general solution to fixing Haiti’s issues is to legitimize the government. Corruption and mismanagement have run rampant in Haiti since 1986, when the last dictatorship ended. Haitian citizens lack the trust in government that is necessary to build a successful state.
Issues in Haiti are deep rooted and have existed for nearly all of the countries history. At this point it may not even be rational to aim towards making it not a failed state, as it has been so deeply entrenched in this status for so long that lots of smaller, short term goals are needed before a long term goal can be met.
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