Senior fellow Vijaya Ramachandran and Julie Walz's blog post on Baby Doc and Haiti was included in the Huffington Post.
From the Article:
The surprise return of ousted dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier to Haiti has thrown more uncertainty into a country already struggling with political paralysis from the November election and a painful recovery from last year's quake. Duvalier returned after nearly 25 years in exile and was arrested in Port au Prince for charges of corruption and embezzlement. The following day, a lawsuit was filed against him for torture and crimes against humanity. Duvalier is blamed, along with his father Francoise "Papa Doc" Duvalier, for the torture and rape of thousands -- between 40,000 and 60,000 Haitians are thought to have died under their rule from 1957 - 1986. Despite this horrendous record, some young Haitians are drawn to Baby Doc, believing that he might bring some relief from the desperate conditions in which they find themselves.
Time for fresh thinking! One promising idea: let foreigners run for president. University of Chicago economist Raghuram Rajan suggests as much in this very interesting paper. Rajan examines the problems of failed states, including the repeated return to power of former warlords, which he argues causes institutions to become weaker and people to get poorer. He notes that economic power through property holdings or human capital gives people the means to hold their leaders accountable. In the absence of such distributed power, dictators reign. Rajan argues that in failed states economic growth leading to empowered citizenry is more likely if a neutral party presides. Solution: allow the electorate to choose a foreigner, who would govern for a fixed term.