The ecstatic election of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1990, his American-supported restoration to office in 1994, and the peaceful election in 1995 of President Rene Preval were harbingers of a radically new and promising era in Haitian political and economic life. For the first time in Haiti’s 190-year old independent tradition, men of and chosen by the majority of Haiti’s people had gained power, and attained their positions legally and peacefully.With a five-year presidency, Preval now has the opportunity to reconstruct and remold the Haitian state, to raise Haitian living standards, and to create a new political culture of democracy and tolerance.

The future of his country, and the success of Haiti’s last best chance to break its chains of poverty, desperation, and deprivation, depend on the choices that he and his colleagues make in the months ahead. The context of those choices is stark. Haiti remains the poorest and least industrialized nation in the Western Hemisphere. The Preval government thus has much to do.

This book provides an agenda for Preval and his successors, one that examines both Haiti’s political culture--its historical legacy and what that means for future reconstruction--and many of its most critical political, economic, and social challenges.

In addition to Rotberg, the contributors include: Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Anthony V. Cantanese, DePauw University; Robert Fatton, Jr., University of Virginia; Clive Gray, Harvard Institute for International Development; Michel S. Laguerre, University of California, Berkeley; Mats Lundahl, Stockholm School of Economics; Robert Maguire, Inter-American Foundation, Jennifer McCoy, Georgia State University; William G. O’Neill, former Director of the Legal Department of the OAS/UN International Civilian Mission in Haiti; Robert A. Pastor, Carter Center; Marc Prou, University of Massachusetts, Boston; Donald E. Schultz, U.S. Army War College; and Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Johns Hopkins University.