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Haiti Urban Dominance, Rural Stagnation
A sharp administrative division existed between rural
and
urban jurisdictions. The capital city dominated the urban
sector.
National political institutions and decisions focused on
Port-au-Prince, and they were far removed from the lives
of most
Haitians. References to the "Republic of Port-au-Prince"
reflected this reality. The political system affected all
Haitians, but changes in government generally had little
direct
impact on the lives of rural Haitians.
Data from 1984 suggested that the government spent
about 65
percent of its revenues in Port-au-Prince, a city with
roughly 20
percent of the nation's population. In effect, taxes
levied in
rural areas paid the salaries of a privileged group of
city
dwellers.
Foreign assistance also tended to exacerbate
rural-urban
differences. About 40 percent of all public foreign aid
benefited
Port-au-Prince.
In rural Haiti, the army was the government. The
official
role of the armed forces was national defense, but most
members
of the military carried out police functions
(see The Role of the Armed Forces
, ch. 10). Perhaps the most influential
presence was
that of the denim-uniformed corps of 562 rural section
chiefs
(chefs de section) and their assistants. People
commonly
referred to the section chief and his corps of assistants
as
leta (the state), although the section chiefs
constituted
more on auxiliary corps and were not members of the
regular army.
The rural section chiefs were usually recruited from a
small
class of landed peasant families known as gro neg
(big
man) or gran abitan (large peasant). These families
generally had other economic interests in addition to
farming,
including grain speculation, moneylending, and various
forms of
commerce. Appointments of section chiefs were usually
based on
political ties, factional alliances, and bribes. In many
cases
the positions were inherited.
The role of section chief involved much more than
conventional police functions. As the sole government
representative in rural areas, the section chief levied
taxes and
fines, mediated disputes, and served as a civil registry.
These
responsibilities placed the section chief in a powerful
political
and economic position. He was well situated to collect
bribes;
rural police refused to provide services to citizens who
did not
make special payments to them. The virtual absence of
competing
power brokers buttressed the section chiefs' positions.
The 1987
Constitution set up rural government councils in an
attempt to
curb abuses by section chiefs and to mediate the interests
of
rural citizens in the political process. These councils,
however,
were also subject to graft and corruption.
Centralized authority in the presidency contrasted with
the
decentralized exercise of authority by local government
officials. Port-au-Prince provided no policy direction for
local
governments, and it did little to monitor them. Few funds
were
made available to local governments for expenses other
than
salaries. Certain local officials, such as section chiefs,
exercised absolute power within their local jurisdictions.
They
did not depend on salaries for their income; in a sense,
they
purchased from the state the privilege of collecting
revenues by
virtue of their authority and their power to grant favors.
Data as of December 1989
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