David Nicholls

Dynastic Despotism: From Father to Son

‘Everyone was amazed,’ writes an English journalist, ‘when the succession passed smoothly … to Duvalier’s teenage son.’1 In this chapter I wish to examine the reasons for the amazement, to attempt an explanation for the smooth succession, and to consider some recent developments that have been taking place in the politics of Haiti. As archdeacon Paley2 has suggested, the explanation for the amazement is to be found in a basic misunderstanding of the Duvalierist phenomenon and in a failure to see it in the context of Haitian history. There are certain enduring features of the Haitian past which must be taken into account in any attempt to explain the rise and progression of Duvalierism.