0 An Island Drifting Apart Why Haiti mires in poverty while the Dominican Republic forges ahead

please do not quote without permission The Haitian earthquake of January 2010 has revealed the extreme vulnerability of people living in a society where the economy and the state simultaneously fail to deliver. This study focuses on the historical roots of the Haitian tragedy and the striking welfare contrast with the neighboring Dominican Republic. We use the theory of violence and social orders by North, Wallis and Weingast (2009) to explain why the political elites of both countries behaved differently with respect to economic, political and institutional reform in the late 19th century. We extend the theoretical framework arguing that the compounding hostilities between Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the early 19th century have deepened the existing political, social and cultural cleavages and, in turn, have induced different strategic concerns and a disparate process of national identity formation, which have aggravated the depth and persistence of their unequal development patterns