Haiti is administratively divided into 10 departments, which are subdivided into districts, each of which has communes. The communes are in turn divided into community sections, and these are made up of neighborhoods. According to Haitian and international humanitarian and human rights organizations working in Haiti, this administrative structure may vary and there can be additional or different subdivisions in some places, for example in densely populated or large communes, where residents
The Haitian Independence Debt
Mark Weidemaier and Mitu Gulati
The Haitian Independence Debt of 1825 is perhaps the most odious in the history of sovereign debt. France agreed to grant recognition to the Haitian state in exchange for a massive indemnity payment, ostensibly intended to compensate French plantation owners for losses suffered during Haitian revolution. With French gunboats lurking in port and offshore, the French imposed a massive and unpayable debt burden equal to roughly 5 times the annual French budget.
Surprisingly, the literature on odious debt pays fairly little attention to this episode. Perhaps this because the doctrine of odious debt was developed with a view towards borrowing by a despot who is subsequently overthrown. Must the populace repay money borrowed to oppress it? Thus, when Haiti does show up in the odious debt literature, the question typically involves debts incurred by the despotic Duvalier regimes. The Independence Debt, by contrast was incurr