19670: IRC News | Populism, Conservatism & Civil Society In Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: IRC Communications <communications@irc-online.org>

March 2, 2004
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Introducing a new commentary from IRC’s Right Web -
http://rightweb.irc-online.org

Populism, Conservatism, and Civil Society in Haiti
By Beth Sims, Interhemispheric Resource Center | original April 1992 |
reprinted
March 2004

(Editor’s Note: In the name of supporting democracy and freedom, U.S.
political
aid programs have routinely subverted democratic transitions and national
sovereignty.
In his January 2004 State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush
called
for the doubling of the budget of the National Endowment for Democracy
(NED).
In Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, to name just a few of the countries
where
NED and its associated organizations have been active, NED together with
the
democratization program of the U.S. Agency for International Development
have
subverted -- not promoted -- democracy. The IRC reproduces this report,
which
was written in 1992 about programs initiated during the Bush senior
administration,
as part of our effort to provide greater understanding about the way
internal
political processes in Haiti have long been tied to political, economic,
and
military aid programs of the U.S. government.)

Writing in early 1992, Beth Sims wrote: "Under the auspices of building
democracy,
the U.S. government is trying to organize, finance, and equip sectors of
Haitian
society that oppose the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, ousted in a
coup
last September. The democratically elected Aristide is a radical populist
propelled
into power by Haiti 's highly mobilized and politicized popular sector.
Aristide's
agenda was both pragmatic and idealistic: pull Haiti out of its economic
slump,
satisfy the desperate needs of the country's poor majority, build effective
governing institutions, and dismantle the social and economic structures
that
have permitted the Haitian military and their elite allies to abuse power
with
impunity for the last three decades. To carry out this project, Aristide
relied
on the mass, sometimes violent pressure of his popular allies. By virtue of
their numbers and passion, these forces in civil society were seen as a
partial
counterweight to the military and to legislative and judicial branches
weighted
with Aristide opponents."

See complete new IRC paper online at:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/analysis/2004/0403ned-haiti.php

With printer-friendly PDF version at:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/pdf/0403ned-haiti.pdf

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