From a retrospective and reflective standpoint, I would like to recall the observations of Leslie François Manigat and Marc Louis Bazin, which even today remain calls for awareness and strategic thinking. Deceased and nearly reviled for their opportunistic misadventures, these two party leaders—one a former President of the Republic and the other a former Prime Minister in troubled times—warn us against simplistic approaches and spare us the trap of improvisation that ignores historical and sociological constraints.

In short, the contemporary rule of law requires a properly cognitive and pragmatic conceptualization. It cannot be reduced to a mysterious set of political or folkloric slogans, to a providential, incantatory phraseology, to a mystique of blancomania, or to a form of masochistic servitude. Electoral democracy has been replaced by circular transition. Admittedly, this is an unfortunate reality specific to Haiti, a reality that is in some sense catastrophic, a mirror of a society bankrupt on all fronts. After the thinking of Leslie François Manigat and Marc Louis Bazin, a terrifying void set in, benefiting “crisis-mongers” and criminals of every kind. That is why the historian–political scientist’s perspective of Professor Leslie François Manigat and the programmatic tone of the senior international civil servant Marc Louis Bazin—and the criticisms that may now be made of them—are both far from lacking enriching lessons for those of us who are sharing in today’s misery. Analyses from all eras that resonate more than ever as February 7, 2026 approaches, marking forty (40) years of this transitional saga without positive results.