Haiti's 200-Year Ménage-à-Trois: Globalization, the State, and Civil Society
- Two dominant historiographies explain Haiti's trajectory either by global and international forces or by a predatory state.
- The author argues that both leave sets of actors invisible and produce binaries that cannot be reconciled.
- The author proposes a tripartite framework that tracks foreign powers, the state and the Haitian people.
- The author states that binary logics in theories of globalization and civil society need to be replaced with a tripartite framework.
- The article reports Haiti's debt as of 2006 at 1.4 billion dollars, with annual debt service of $57.4 million.
Mark Schuller examines the limits of two dominant historiographies of Haiti: one explains the country's trajectory by global and international forces, the other by a predatory state. He argues that both render sets of actors invisible and sustain mutually unintelligible binaries within theories of globalization and civil society. He proposes a tripartite framework that tracks foreign powers, the state and the Haitian people, and he develops it through a long-term view of Haitian history and the contemporary situation.
The article draws on long-term fieldwork, oral history and published materials. It cites figures on the colony's population in 1788 and on Haiti's debt in 2006.
How to cite
Caribbean Studies, 2007, Haiti's 200-Year Ménage-à-Trois: Globalization, the State, and Civil Society, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25613094
- Rights holder
- Caribbean Studies