Signing at Livres en folie: »Haiti (1986-2025): The State of the State » – A Masterful Essay by Pierre Josué Agénor CADET

With his thirty-fourth work, Haiti (1986-2025): The State of the State, published in June 2025 by Correct Pro Éditions, Professor Pierre Josué Agénor CADET delivers a work of rare scope, ambitious, well-documented, and committed. This essay of over 200 pages, structured into 20 thematic chapters, constitutes a true politico-social fresco of contemporary Haiti. From the fall of the dictatorship in 1986 to the current impasse, the author takes a lucid dive into the entrails of a state in perdition, while also outlining paths for national rebirth.

A Methodical Reading of Recent History

The work begins with a rigorous analysis of the political upheavals that marked the post-Duvalier period: an unfinished democratic transition, contested elections, the emergence of new political actors without a clear national project, the militarization then demilitarization of public life, and the rise of armed gangs. Through a sober yet relentless narrative, Pierre Josué Agénor CADET dissects the mechanisms of a gradual but predictable collapse of the state apparatus.

Each chapter revisits a specific aspect of this slow disintegration: the loss of state authority, the deinstitutionalization of public powers, the politicization of education, rampant corruption, the role of economic elites, and the grip of foreign powers on the country's internal affairs. He highlights how successive political choices have led to the breakdown of the social contract, the erosion of citizen trust, and the normalization of violence.

A Transversal and Critical Approach

But the essay goes far beyond a mere observation. Professor CADET structures his analysis around three fundamental axes: political, social, and economic. He questions the very notion of governance in Haiti, the weakness of judicial institutions, the failure of health and education systems, and the structural exclusion of large segments of the population. He also focuses on the place of youth, women, diasporas, and collective memory, often instrumentalized or neglected.

Through clear, dense, and sometimes biting prose, he succeeds in making complex concepts accessible, while drawing upon great Haitian and international thinkers to enrich his reflection. The result: a book that reads simultaneously as a political essay, a manual of sociological analysis, and a call for moral revolt.

Twenty Chapters to Understand and Rebuild

Each of the essay's twenty chapters is conceived as a piece of a vast puzzle. Some titles speak for themselves: The State in Breakdown, Resigning Intellectuals, Governing Without Vision, Haiti Under Guardianship, The Lost Territories of the Republic, Sacrificed Youth, Normalized Corruption, Towards a Fictional Sovereignty, etc. Together, they paint an uncompromising portrait of the current situation, while refusing fatalism.