Government and society

Constitutional framework

Haiti instituted universal suffrage in 1950, but most of its elections have been marred by ballot tampering. Its constitution was approved by referendum in 1987 but not actually put into effect until 1995, during Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s presidency. Further amendments were approved by the parliament in 2011 and took effect the following year. The constitution, which incorporates features of the U.S. and French constitutions, provides for a president who is both head of state and the country’s main power holder. The president is directly elected to a five-year term and may stand for reelection to a second, nonconsecutive term. The head of government is the prime minister, appointed by the president from among the parliamentary members of the majority political party. The bicameral parliament consists of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. Senators are elected for six-year terms and deputies for four.

Local government

The administration of local governance is carried out in three main divisions. The largest of these are départements, which are divided into arrondissements and, further, into communes. The effectiveness of an arrondissement’s administration varies considerably with its location; the closer it is to the département capital and the more urban it is, the more likely it is to function effectively as an administrative entity. If the administrative center of the arrondissement is located in the same town as the capital of the département, then the administrative head of the arrondissement, the préfect, is likely to wield considerable influence and power. If the arrondissement is located in a rather inaccessible rural area, the village and hamlet elders are likely to have more power than any appointed government official. A commune and its officials, especially the commandant (a local authority similar to a town mayor), are usually the only government personnel with whom most Haitians have any contact.

Justice

The judiciary consists of four levels: the Court of Cassation (the highest court), courts of appeal, civil courts, and magistrate’s courts. Judges of the Court of Cassation are appointed by the president to 10-year terms. The Haitian legal system is nominally based on the Napoleonic Code, modified by legislation enacted during François Duvalier’s presidency (1957–71). The system is deeply flawed, and the government influences all levels of the court system, although the constitution calls for an independent judiciary. Prisoners can be held for months or years without a trial—sometimes despite court orders for their release—and many accused criminals have bought their freedom with bribes. A 2012 amendment to the constitution called for the establishment of a constitutional court to settle disputes between the executive branch and the parliament.

Political process

Politically and socially, Haiti seems to be always in a state of transition. Although democracy is desired by many, for a long time the political climate has been shaped by a key result of Haiti’s bloody independence war: the largely mulatto elite who retreated to congested urban areas, took over the reins of government, and eventually left the rural areas to be divided among a scattered Black farming population in the interior. The rural class came to regard the government as having little relevance to their lives, an attitude that has persisted to the present day. As a result, most people believe that the formal political organization of Haiti exists primarily on paper. Rural Haitians today feel the irrelevance of a government that has been unable to bring them security, health care, clean water, and a workable transportation system. Much of the population boycotts official elections, which are considered to be corrupt.

Political parties were banned in the early years of François Duvalier’s presidency, but in the early 1960s the first of a number of official Duvalierist parties was established. Several opposition groups took shape in the following decades but were subject to frequent repression. After the end of Jean-Claude Duvalier’s regime in 1986, a large number of political parties formed. One of the major parties in the 1990s was the Lavalas Political Organization (French: Organisation Politique Lavalas [OPL]), founded in 1991 and led by Pres. Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Growing anti-Aristide sentiment led to a split in the OPL in 1996. Its successor parties—the populist leftist Lavalas Family (Creole: La Fanmi Lavalas [FL]), started by Aristide, and the anti-Aristide Organization of the Struggling People (Organisation du Peuple en Lutte)—became two of the leading political forces in the country. Other significant groups were the Front for Hope (Creole: Fwon Lespwa; French: Front de l’Espoir) and its successor, a party called INITE (Unity)—led by former Aristide ally René Préval from, respectively, 2005 and 2009—and the center-left Democratic Alliance Party (Alyans). In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the legislature, if not the presidency, tended to be dominated by politicians and parties with some connection to Aristide.

Security

The military was Haiti’s only long-standing national institution from the time of independence in 1804 until the mid-1990s, when it was disbanded. Military leaders frequently used their institution’s power and prestige to influence political events or to take over the government by force. Haiti’s various military, paramilitary, and police units were also notorious for corruption and human rights abuses. The two Duvalier regimes (1957–86) terrorized and eliminated opponents with an armed group called the Volunteers for National Security, commonly known as the Tontons Macoutes (a Haitian Creole phrase meaning “bogeymen”); the group was formally disbanded in 1986, but its members continued to terrorize the populace. Haitian police and military units also acted with impunity. During a U.S.-led occupation of the country in the mid-1990s, the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide disbanded the military but failed to disarm its members, and the United States and United Nations began to create a new Haitian police force. However, the first recruits were trained for only a few months before assuming their duties, and by the turn of the 21st century many had been implicated in violent crime or corruption associated with drug trafficking. U.S. armed forces routinely conduct antidrug patrols in and around Haiti’s maritime limits and airspace.

Health and welfare

Haiti’s death rate is high, mainly because of the prevalence of infectious and parasitic diseases, diseases of the circulatory system, and conditions associated with malnutrition; moreover, Haiti has a higher incidence of HIV infection and AIDS and a higher infant mortality rate than any other country in the Western Hemisphere. Roughly three-fourths of Haitian households lack running water, and unsafe water—along with inadequate housing and unsanitary living conditions—contributes to the high incidence of infectious diseases. There is a chronic shortage of health care personnel, and hospitals lack resources, a situation that became readily apparent after the January 2010 earthquake.