Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
tionally responsible for the actions of such officials. Secretaries
of state serve at the president's discretion, can be removed by
the president, and function both as administrators of their secretariats
and as agents of presidential authority.
The extent to which presidents have sought to employ the
cabinet as a functioning executive body to organize and implement
policy has varied considerably. Balaguer rotated individuals
in and out of such cabinet positions with great frequency
and sometimes appointed people with little relevant background;
he also granted the rank of secretary of state to large
numbers of individuals other than cabinet ministers. Thus,
alongside the formal bureaucratic structure of the state and
cabinet with its constant rotation of office-holders, there were
the informal cliques of Balaguer's true confidants. The governments
of the PRD and of the PLD differed from this pattern,
while still retaining a high degree of personalism, and, in the
case of Silvestre Antonio Guzman Fernandez, nepotism.
The Legislature
The 1966 constitution confers all legislative powers on the
Congress of the Republic, which consists of a Senate and a
Chamber of Deputies. The election of senators and deputies is
by direct vote every four years. Until 1994 congressional terms
were coterminous with presidential terms. This fact greatly
increased the possibility that the president's party would enjoy
a majority in the legislature, particularly in the Senate. As a
consequence of the 1994 constitutional reform that called for
new presidential elections—but not congressional or local
ones—in 1996, the electoral calendar now separates presidential
elections by two years from elections for congressional and
local-level positions. This nonconcurrent timing decreases the
likelihood that a president will have majority support in Congress.
Under Balaguer the possession of such majorities, at least
in the Senate, permitted not only the use but also the abuse of
presidential power. However, as a result of the 1994 reform, the
country faces the opposing risk of potential deadlock and
ungovernability because of executive-legislative confrontation
between a minority administration and a Congress dominated
by opposition parties.
One senator is elected from each of the country's provinces
and from the National District (Santo Domingo); in 1998 the
Dominican Senate had thirty members (see fig. 2). This electoral
rule provides for significant rural overrepresentation in
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