Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Preface
Like its predecessors, these studies represent an attempt to
treat in a compact and objective manner the dominant contemporary
social, political, economic, and military aspects of
the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Sources of information
included scholarly books, journals, and monographs; official
reports of governments and international organizations;
numerous periodicals; the authors' previous research and
observations; and interviews with individuals who have special
competence in Dominican, Haitian, and Latin American
affairs. Chapter bibliographies appear at the end of the book;
brief comments on sources recommended for further reading
appear at the end of each chapter. To the extent possible,
place-names conform with the system used by the United States
Board on Geographic Names (BGN). Measurements are given
in the metric system; a conversion table is provided to assist
readers unfamiliar with metric measurements (see table 1,
Appendix) . A glossary is also included.
Although there are numerous variations, Spanish surnames
generally consist of two parts: the patrilineal name followed by
the matrilineal one. In the instance of Joaquin Balaguer
Ricardo, for example, Balaguer is his father's surname and
Ricardo, his mother's maiden name. In nonformal use, the
matrilineal name is often dropped. Thus, after the first mention,
just Balaguer is used. A minority of individuals use only
the patrilineal name.
Creole words used in the text may be presented in forms
that are unfamiliar to readers who have done previous research
on Haiti. The Creole orthography employed in this volume is
that developed by the National Pedagogic Institute (Institut
Pedagogique National-IPN) , which has been the standard in
Haiti since 1978.
The body of the text reflects information available as of
December 1999. Certain other portions of the text, however,
have been updated: the Introduction discusses significant
events that have occurred since the completion of research, the
Country Profiles and the tables include updated information
as available, and the Bibliography lists recently published
sources thought to be particularly helpful to the reader.
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