Democracy by Force : The Impact of US Military Intervention on Democracy in Post-Cold War Haiti

Abstract: This paper contributes to the current debate on the democratic impact of US military intervention in the post-Cold War era through a comparative study of two interventions in Haiti in 1994 and 2004. Due to a lack of significant academic work on Haitian democratisation, theory could not be found to sufficiently define Haiti as a political entity. Therefore, the state is defined through the concept of plutocratic democracy; a form of sub-tier democracy. Using this concept, an analytical framework is created to measure the impact of US military intervention in the 1994 and 2004 cases studies. Through a comparison of both cases, it is deduced that US military intervention stunts Haitian democratisation because a large proportion of US political actors support the informal plutocracy in Haiti at the behest of democracy. The claims of this study are supported by an extensive literature review, as well as media sources, official reports and communications from relevant actors.