La démocratie haïtienne à l’épreuve des choix publics incompatibles: dynamiques d’exclusion des masses rurales

Dynamics of Exclusion of the Rural Masses

Abstract

This article analyzes the paradoxes of Haitian democracy based on a central fact: the proclaimed political equality coexists with mechanisms of long-term exclusion that disproportionately affect rural populations. By mobilizing the theory of the incompatibility of public choices, the study shows that the State, caught between budgetary scarcity, external dependencies, institutional constraints and elite logics, repeatedly arbitrates to the detriment of rural areas. Exclusion appears to be a systemic effect of centralization, weak civic infrastructure, administrative identification barriers, linguistic and informational mediation, and clientelistic electoral practices. The article discusses the consequences of this incomplete citizenship on the legitimacy of institutions, representation, territorial cohesion and political sovereignty, and then proposes an agenda of enabling reforms combining effective decentralization, administrative proximity, local participatory mechanisms and territorialized accountability. The argumentation is based on a triangulation of normative sources, institutional reports and academic work, complemented by an analytical reading of electoral sequences and experiences of local governance.