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Haiti The Functions of the State
Most Haitians viewed government functionaries as
beneficiaries of patronage and the spoils system rather
than as
public servants. The state traditionally supported and
maintained
the established political order and extracted wealth from
the
population. Citizens therefore expected little or nothing
from
government. Rather, they saw the state as an entity that
confiscated, taxed, prohibited, or imprisoned.
The Haitian government also traditionally served as a
source
of jobs. Political favoritism and bribery characterized
the
system. One common Creole expression holds that "Jijman
se
kob" (court rulings are money). Political scientists
have
used terms such as kleptocracy, predatory state,
government-by-
franchise, and autocolonization in their descriptions of
the
Haitian system of taxation, patronage, corruption, public
monopolies, and private monopolies protected by the state.
The state had developed a relatively elaborate
apparatus for
taxation, but it provided only limited public services.
Most
Haitians relied on foreign-assistance agencies and on
nongovernmental institutions for services provided by most
other
governments. For example, education was the most elaborate
public-service sector, but the majority of children still
attended nongovernmental schools
(see Education
, ch. 7).
The
state's abdication of its role as service provider created
a
situation in which foreign-assistance agencies served as a
kind
of shadow government.
Government institutions in Port-au-Prince provided at
least
the facade of public services through the Ministry of
Public
Health and Population; the Ministry of Agriculture,
Natural
"Resources, and Rural Development; the Ministry of
National
Education, Youth, and Sports; and other ministries. These
ministries had no representatives in most rural areas,
however,
and they provided relatively few services even in
Port-au-Prince.
Government budgets for public services generally accounted
for
salaries, but they provided little or no budget support
for
program implementation.
Aside from the army, Haiti's key state institution had
traditionally been the customs house, the primary source
of tax
revenues. The state also extracted wealth through its
control
over certain essential services and through public and
private
monopoly ownership of key commodity-based enterprises
(see Economic Policy
, ch. 8). This system contributed to the
country's
political instability because it politicized important
sectors of
the country's economy.
Data as of December 1989
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