Drawing on original case studies of police reform in Burundi, Haiti and Southern Sudan, this article demonstrates that developmental approaches to security system reform have more scope for application in fragile states that are not at war or involved in the War on Terror.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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289 p, Synopsis Examining the relationship between democracy and the politics of race from a cross-national comparative perspective, this study examies specifically how black people fare in the political systems of Britain, Brazil, and the USA. Questions concerning the role of race in the development of democratic ideology, theory and systems of governance, and the levels of difference and commonality in the policitical experiences of people of African descent in the diaspora are addressed. This text uses the traditional tools of comparative political science in order to examine the role of race and race-related issues in each nation. Each of the nation-state chapters traces the historical relationship between the development of democracy and the politics of race. Also discussed are the processes and factors that are the result of the specific national or political differences and those that may be the result of systemic factors that commonly occur in democratic contexts. ; Includes bibliographical references (p.267-281) and index.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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212 p., Analysis of Canadian and US democracy promotion in the Americas, with a focus on Haiti, Peru, and Bolivia in particular. The main argument is that democracy promotion is typically formulated to advance commercial, geopolitical and security objectives that conflict with a genuine commitment to democratic development. Includes chapter "Polyarchy at any cost in Haiti."
After [Jean-Jacques Dessalines]' death, [Henri Christophe] assumed leadership of Haiti, but the mulatto minority South set up its own republic under Pétion. Christophe committed suicide in 1820 amid an uprising over his forced labor policies. Pétion's successor, JeanPierre Boyer, reformed the two republics into one Haiti. Boyer ruled until his government collapsed in 1843 due to political rivalry. Until 1915, only two of the 21 governments since 1843 were not dismantled by coups d'états or political in-fighting. Except for agreement on the abolition of slavery, the state and nation were headed in opposite or different directions before the L'Ouverture adherents took over in 1804. The literature on Haiti, from Trinidadian C. L. R. James' classic book The Black Jacobins, to TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson's An Unbroken Agony, all tell the awful consequences of the "color curtain" in claustrophobic Haiti.
Briefly, Haiti and the Dominican Republic occupy the same island in the West Indies, Haiti occupying the western part and the Dominican Republic the eastern part. ... after my year in the Dominican Republic I decided to go to Haiti as a tourist before returning to the U.S. I remember reporting to the embassy in Port-au-Prince to be briefed and to let them know where I was staying and where I would be going. I remember that the Caucasian male embassy employee who interviewed me was both curious and very amused that I was in Haiti to visit. I remember that he told me emphatically, "the only thing you have in common with these people is color." He proceeded to rattle off negative things about the Haitian people. I was shocked at his boldness but I kept my cool. An example of this is the fact that President Thomas Jefferson allegedly launched an economic embargo against Haiti when Haiti became independent, causing the U.S. and Europe to refuse to acknowledge its independence for decades. At the present time it is alleged that Haiti is the most depressed nation in the Western Hemisphere.
A variety of approaches are discussed in this work, dealing with the economic problems, geopolítics, social conditions, and controversial themes affecting the region
