Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC IN the late 1990s could be considered
a political democracy, albeit one that remained fragile
and uninstitutionalized. This chapter focuses on contemporary
issues and patterns in the country's government and politics. It
briefly reviews the emergence of democratic politics in the
country, examines the country's system of government and
political institutions, analyzes the major political and socioeconomic
actors, and discusses major issues in foreign relations.
Three major themes are underscored. First, the discussion
notes that various historical, socioeconomic, and international
factors have been unfavorable to the development of democracy
in the country, although dramatic changes have taken
place over the past several decades. Second, this historical
experience is crucial to understanding how the country's system
of government comprises both formal rules (such as the
constitution and elections) and informal norms often at variance
with the formal rules. The formal rules have frequently
been ignored, manipulated, or changed by political actors as
part of the struggle for power. Informal norms regarding both
the use of the state for personal power and accumulation of
wealth and the invocation of formal rules have often been
more important. Following Max Weber, we may say that these
norms reflect patrimonial politics, where a ruler governs a
country as if it were simply an extension of his household, thus
blurring public purposes and private interests. Typically, this
type of ruler seeks to reduce the autonomy of his followers
through complex ties of dependence and loyalty commonly
involving patronage and clientelist ties. The third theme is
that, as a consequence, the struggle for political democracy in
the country has been a struggle not only for greater respect for
civil liberties and political rights of the population as a whole,
but also for the construction of a more coherent and accountable
set of state and political institutions, with greater respect
for a democratic rule of law.
Historical Legacies of Authoritarian Rule
The Dominican Republic has had a tragic history particularly
inimical to the development of democratic politics. This
fact is evident in the country's Spanish colonial experience,
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