Understanding the Weakening of State Capabilities and its Consequences: A Grounded Theory Study of Haiti’s Loss of Legitimate Use of Monopoly on Violence

This chapter seeks to explore a conceptualization of explanatory factors that influence the crisis affecting Haiti’s state capabilities in the realm of its four component “elements of stateness”—territoriality, governance, administrative capacity, and legitimacy amid unimaginable and intolerable levels of internal armed violence and criminal gang activities. The study uses grounded theory and data collection is made through in-depth existing video interviews, electronic online documents related to the phenomenon of gangs’ criminal activities, gangs’ own testimonies, and journalist investigators in social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The study found that there are, though not exclusive, five key factors, namely: external actors or forces, Haitian elite’s complicity, lack of elite settlements or agreements, increased profile of gangs by social media and local radio, and proliferation of private securities. The coded themes are aligned with two different schools of thought—The international approach and the Domestic approach—where key themes of one approach influence key themes of the other approach. Understanding the relationship between the two approaches is of paramount importance in developing and redesigning policies and guiding national and international practitioners toward a sustainable security approach to rebuild Haiti’s state capabilities.