Can Haiti defy failed-state syndrome?

Since the fall of a military dictatorship in Somalia three decades ago, the international community has faced a stubborn and spreading problem: how to rebuild states after their governments collapse. Some, like Libya and Yemen, have succumbed to civil wars involving meddling foreign rivals. In others, like Somalia and South Sudan, international attempts to set up even transitional governing coalitions have repeatedly stumbled.

Now the Caribbean nation of Haiti faces a novel political crisis that may result in a new model for restoring fragile states. On Monday the current government’s term expired without an elected successor to take over. The immediate need is therefore to establish who has the legitimacy to steer the country back to popular rule.

Yet more is at stake than the stability of a society perched on the brink of violence. Haiti is one of the world’s poorest and most food-insecure places despite receiving billions of dollars in foreign aid over decades. Its political and economic crises are prompting observers and policymakers to question whether foreign intervention, however well intentioned, does more harm than good.

“Many observers look at Haiti and see failure,” wrote Monique Clesca, a former United Nations official and pro-democracy advocate, in the journal Foreign Affairs recently. “But there is reason to hope that this enduring and complicated crisis and the current chaos can serve as a clarifying moment for Haiti’s long-delayed reckoning.”

The current political impasse is just the latest wrinkle in Haiti’s long pursuit of stable democracy. Last July President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in his official residence. He was succeeded by Ariel Henry, whom he had made acting prime minster two weeks earlier. Elections were due to be held in September. Mr. Henry instead embarked on a process to redraft the constitution.

That initiative clashed with a dialogue comprising a broad array of hundreds of professional and civil society groups that began in 2018 in response to evidence of election fraud and increasing authoritarianism under Mr. Moïse. The group, the Commission to Search for a Haitian Solution to the Crisis, has drafted a two-year road map for restoring the rule of law and democracy.

Now that the late president’s term has expired, both Mr. Henry and the transitional council are claiming the right to govern. The Biden administration, which has vowed not to “pick winners and losers,” has urged the two sides to work together. There’s just one problem. On Tuesday, investigators accused Mr. Henry in the assassination, strengthening the claims of his opponents that he is unfit to guide Haiti forward.

Decades of foreign aid and economic policies shaped by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have left Haiti increasingly dependent on the international community. American, French, and U.N. soldiers have been a regular presence since the 1990s. According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 40% of the population requires emergency assistance.

But Haitians have also shown resilience in the face of successive natural disasters and persistent political crises. They have rebuilt schools and hospitals battered by earthquakes and hurricanes. Now they are expressing a desire for self-determination through deliberative and inclusive dialogue. They may show yet that citizens make the best architects of their own states.