Street Sovereignty

Abstract

“Street Sovereignty” details the workings of youth street gangs while illuminating both the grassroots potential and violent consequences of placing them at the center of Haiti’s multi-scale governance project. The fall of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986 was supposed to commence a new era of democratic state building in Haiti. Yet the transition to a neoliberal democracy has instead yielded the retrenchment of government in everyday life. In line with austerity and deregulation protocols, the Haitian state has both downsized its public sector and outsourced state tasks and responsibilities to non-state actors. Few analyses have focused on how local subaltern groups have also intervened in the governance voids wrought by neoliberalism. In the poor districts of Port-au-Prince, the work of politics, governance, and development are largely brokered and mediated by youth street gangs called baz. Under conditions of electoral politics, weak government, and project-based development, baz have emerged as key players who negotiate and amalgamate relationships with global and national power structures in order to execute governance in their zones. Ultimately, the convoluted field of governance in Haiti has motivated widespread calls for a robust state apparatus that would administer services to the population without intermediaries or distinction.