Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier's legacy in Haiti still hampers the country today, says Elizabeth Abbott, author of “Haiti: The Duvaliers and Their Legacy,” in an essay for Foreign Policy.
“Duvalier left behind Duvalierism, a system of government too profoundly entrenched to truly eradicate,” she writes, describing a system of kleptomania, unchecked environmental degradation, and exploitation of poverty. "By the time he was forced to flee in 1986 under U.S. pressure amid uprisings throughout Haiti, Jean-Claude's Duvalierism had bankrupted the Haitian state and enshrined corruption and incompetence in the government and civil service.”
Rampant corruption persists. Haiti ranked 142 out of 178 nations on Transparency International's 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index, a slight improvement from placing 177 out of 180 two years earlier. The World Bank has described the government thus: "Haiti has dysfunctional budgetary, financial or procurement systems, making financial and aid management impossible."
