Nou Pa Bèt: civic substitution and expressive freedoms in post-state governance

This paper challenges prevailing models of governance and state capacity by examining how civic participation functions as a survival mechanism in contexts of institutional collapse. Using Haiti as a focal case, we analyse the role of expressive freedoms in maintaining governance under conditions of state failure. Drawing on cross-national data from Varieties of Democracy and the World Bank’s World Governance Indicators, we find that expressive civic engagement – not formal civil society participation – is significantly associated with governance quality across fragile regimes. We propose the concept of ‘civic substitution’, where non-state actors partially fill governance voids through non-institutionalised mechanisms. These findings contribute to debates in comparative politics and development studies by highlighting new modes of resilience in the Global South.