User:Gros, Jean-Germain

Biography Jean-Germain Gros is a Haitian-American professor of political science and public policy administration at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL). Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti (May 6, 1964), he moved to New York City as a teenager, receiving his high school diploma from Midwood High School (Brooklyn, NY), BA in economics and sociology (cum laude) from SUNY-Binghamton (1985), MPA from SUNY-Binghamton in 1986, and PhD in political science from the University of California-Berkeley (1993). During the 1993-1994 academic year, Gros was a post-doctoral fellow in the political science department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is the father of Laura-Ayoluwa and Eniola Christine Gros

Academic Career

From1994-August 2001, Gros was an assistant professor at UMSL, holding joint teaching appointment in political science and the public policy administration program, as well as research appointment in the Center for International Studies (also at UMSL). From 2001-20013, Gros was an associate professor, and thereafter a (full) professor in the aforementioned academic units. In Fall 2004, Gros was director of the Missouri-Africa Program and visiting professor of political science at the University of Ghana-Legon. In Summer 2006, he was a visiting professor at the Académie Nationale Diplomatique et Consulaire (ANDC) in Port-au-Prince. In Fall 2006, Gros won the University of Missouri-St. Louis Chancellor Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Research Specialties

Gros specializes in the subfields of comparative politics; African and Caribbean politics, with a focus on Haiti; and public policy administration, with a focus on global healthcare policy.

Publications

State Failure Gros’ interest in comparative politics centers on failed states, which, according to the author, are states that cannot perform the functions of statehood, namely: protect their territory from external enemies, maintain internal law and order, provide social services, and safeguard property rights. Failed states seldom fail, or collapse, completely; instead, their failure is often spatial (they may perform certain functions in the capital city, where their elites live) and (or) temporary. In "Towards a Taxonomy of Failed States in the New World Order: Decaying Somalia, Liberia, Rwanda and Haiti," Third World Quarterly, vol. 17. no. 3, (September 1996), pp. 455–471, Gros discusses the factors associated with state failure, among them: poverty, population growth, authoritarianism, and militarism. According to Google Scholars, this article has more than 2,300 citations, making it very influential in the relevant literature. State Failure, Underdevelopment and Foreign Intervention in Haiti, New York, NY: Routledge, 2012, is a case study of the Haitian failed state, reflecting Gros’ interest in the Caribbean region. He argues that state failure is not a new phenomenon, nor is it due entirely to internal factors. The islands of the Antilles are the ‘oldest children’ of imperialism. From the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism in the 17th century to U.S. hegemony in the 20th century, imperialism has played a major role in the Haitian saga, often manifesting itself through grotesque local dictators, such as François ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier. So-called humanitarian intervention led by the United Nations has been ineffective in helping Haiti to build a credible state. This is also true of other cases where the UN has intervened (Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, etc.). In fact, UN troops inadvertently exacerbated Haiti’s problems in 2010, when they introduced cholera into the country (a fact for which the UN has never taken full responsibility by compensating Haitian victims). In “Anatomy of a Haitian Tragedy: When the Fury of Nature Meets the Debility of the State,” Journal of Black Studies vol. 42, no. 2, March 2011, pp. 131-157, Gros argues that the earthquake of 2010, which killed an estimated 300,000 Haitians, was due in part to state failure. The Haitian state was unable and unwilling to insure its citizens against seismic risks, by regulating construction around Port-au-Prince, through which runs one of the most active fault lines in the world: i.e., the Plantain Garden Fault.

Global Healthcare Policy Healthcare Policy in Africa: Institutions and Politics From Colonialism to the Present, Landham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016, displays Gros’ interest in public policy as it relates to healthcare policy in Africa. Immediately after independence in the early 1960s African countries committed to providing social services, including healthcare, ‘free’ at the point of service. Economic stagnation, shortage of skilled humanpower (doctors and nurses), and rising demand wrought by HIV/AIDS, among other factors, led to the near-collapse of government-funded healthcare systems in Africa in the 1980s. Structural adjustment programs imposed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund did not help; instead, they favored cost recovery and various forms of privatization of healthcare (and veterinary) services. In 2000-01 African countries committed to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which aimed to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other infectious diseases, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, etc. by 2015. Using Big Data from the World Health Organization and the United Nations and incorporating virtually all African countries for which data were available, Gros shows that in 2015 African countries did make progress in meeting the health-related MDGs. Somewhat surprisingly, the poorest African countries were also the mostly likely to meet some of the health-related MDGs, leading Gros to conclude that donor-sponsored debt cancellation in return for increased investment in human development may have played a role in helping African countries to improve healthcare performance (by implication, debt collected by African countries in the 1970s and 1980s had contributed to the collapse of African healthcare systems).

Other Works

Gros’ major publications, not cited above, include but are not limited to:

Journal Articles in English “Indigestible Recipe: Rice, Chicken Wings and International Financial Institutions: Or Hunger Politics in Haiti,” Journal of Black Studies volume 40, no. 5, May 2010, pp. 974-986.

“Unknown Soldiers: Forgotten Haitian Pan-Africanists from the Distant and Recent Past,” Nkrumaist Review vol. 4, no. 1, June 2008, pp. 2-19.

“Big Think, Disjointed Incrementalism: Chinese Economic Success and Policy Lessons for Africa,” African Journal of International Affairs, vol. 11, no. 2, 2008, pp. 40-83. “Realism in Silk: The International Relations of China’s Africa Diplomacy,” Ghana Social Science Journal, June/December 2005, pp. 33-66.

“Trouble in Paradise: Crime and Collapsed States in the Age of Globalization,” British Journal of Criminology, vol. 43, no. 1, 2003, pp. 63-80.

"Haiti: The Political Economy and Sociology of Decay and Renewal," Latin American Research Review, vol. 35, no. 2, 2000, pp. 211-226.

"Haiti's Flagging Transition," Journal of Democracy, vol. 8, no. 4, (October 1997), pp. 94–109.

"The Hard Lessons of Cameroon," Journal of Democracy, vol. 6, no. 3, (July 1995), pp. 112–127.

"Of Cattle, Farmers, Veterinarians and the World Bank: The Political Economy of Veterinary Services Privatization in Cameroon," Public Administration and Development, vol. 14, no. 1, February 1994, pp. 37–51.

Journal Article (in Mandarin Chinese) “Chinese Economic Success and Lessons for Africa¬¬¬––Possibilities and Limits” West Asia and Africa, no. 1, January/February 2006, pp. 32-37 (translated by He Wenping).

Journal Article (in French) “Politique et mysticisme en Afrique noire.” Religion et Sociologie, vol 7, no. 2, 2012, 60-93.

"Les relations franco-africaines à l'âge de la  mondialisation" (translation: Globalization and French-African Relations), Revue Africaine de  Sociologie /African Socio Sociologie /African Sociological Review, volume 2,  no. 2, 1998, pp. 1–19.

Book Chapters “Correcting Intellectual Malpractice: Haiti and Latin America,” in Ollie Johnson and Kwame Dixon (eds.). Handbook of Afro-Latin American Politics. New York, London: Routledge, 2018.

“Failed States in Historical Perspectives,” in H.G. Haupt, W. Heitmeyer, B. Kaletta and A. Kirschner (eds.) The Control of Violence in Modern Society: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, from School Shootings to Ethnic Violence, Springer 2010, pp. 535-561.