Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
tern continued in the next decade, when the leader of the Blue
Party (Partido Azul), Gregorio Luperon, called for a National
Convention to enact a new liberal constitution. The new constitution
was enacted in 1880. This text, in turn, was reformed
three more times before the end of the century (in 1881, 1887,
and 1897). In 1907 and 1908, political changes were once again
associated with constitutional modifications. By 1880, however,
the liberal constitutional doctrine, although not the practice,
had emerged triumphant.
Constitutional manipulation and hypocrisy continued in the
twentieth century, particularly during Trujillo's period in
power, when seven constitutional reforms occurred. There was
formal obedience to constitutional and electoral requirements,
although neither Congress nor the courts were autonomous,
the population had no basic rights, and election results were
carefully orchestrated. For example, in response to international
pressure for democratization following the end of World
War II, Trujillo permitted two regime-sponsored opposition
parties to run in the 1947 elections; each officially received a
similar vote ofjust under 4 percent of the total, which was carefully
distributed so that each could win exactly one deputy seat.
In 1963, following his decisive victory in the presidential
elections and his comfortable majority in Congress, Bosch
decided to proceed with a significant revision of the country's
constitution. The new constitution was promulgated in May
1963. In many ways, the constitution, which included prohibition
of presidential reelection, was a model democratic text.
However, it drew sharp attacks from conservative and business
forces because it curtailed some of the traditional rights of the
church and foresaw the possibility of expropriation of property
and control of foreign investment. One of the first actions by
the military that overthrew Bosch was to declare the new constitution
"nonexistent." In turn, over the next several years Bosch
sought to "return to constitutional power without elections,"
ultimately setting the stage for the 1965 conflict between "constitutionalist"
and "loyalist" forces that led to the United States
intervention.
Following his inauguration as president, Balaguer proceeded
to enact a new constitution through Congress. The
November 1966 constitution (with important modifications
made in 1994) is the text under which the country's democracy
currently operates. The new text enhanced presidential powers
and permitted unlimited presidential reelection (until 1994),
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