Seeing Like a "Failed" NGO: Globalization's Impacts on State and Civil Society in Haiti

Mark Schuller argues that assumptions behind the state and society relationship are problematic because they make transnational economic and geopolitical forces invisible. He uses Haiti's history and the struggles of nongovernmental organizations to examine the state and civil society within globalization. He treats apparent failure within local NGOs as a way to understand the forces that structure NGO closures, reversing the usual development discourse. The article reviews Haitian history including the 1825 indemnity of 150 million francs paid to France, the Duvalier era and the aid regime.