Haiti's Predatory Republic: The Unending Transition to Democracy

The definitive political science account of Haitian politics from 1986 to 2001, organized around the concept of the 'predatory republic' — a hybrid of authoritarianism and polyarchy in which the formal trappings of liberal democracy coexist with a Hobbesian struggle to monopolize state resources that are the only path to wealth in conditions of generalized scarcity. Fatton analyzes the fall of Duvalierism, Aristide's rise and the 1991 coup, the US military intervention and its contradictions, the fracture of Lavalas, and the chimères, arguing that Haiti's democratic transition has failed not because of bad leadership but because of extreme class polarization, material scarcity, and structural adjustment imposed by international financial institutions.