Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
executive, interrogate members of the cabinet, and legislate on
all matters not within the constitutional mandate of other
branches of government or contrary to the constitution. By a
two-thirds vote of the full membership in each chamber, the
Congress can also override a presidential veto of a law previously
approved by simple majority.
Historically, the Dominican Congress has been a weak, submissive
branch. Its facilities, staffing, offices, and library have
been woefully inadequate; in addition, the Court of Accounts,
which examines the country's finances and reports to the Congress,
has not provided complete or timely information. In the
past several years, some modest steps toward improvement
have been taken. Because the selection of candidates to the
party lists has been determined by party leaders, legislators
have tended to be more responsive to these leaders than to voters.
Turnover has been extremely high: from 1970 to 1998,
only 18 percent of incumbent senators and only 17 percent of
incumbent deputies were reelected to a subsequent term. The
turnover has further encouraged legislative weakness and executive
predominance. Many legislators have seen their position
in Congress as temporarily providing them with an opportunity
to focus on issues of personal and parochial gain, rather than
on broader ideological or policy issues. The high turnover has
also tended to discourage emphasis on building up the institution
of the Congress itself. Finally, because the judicial branch
until very recently has also tended to be extremely submissive
to the executive branch, there has been little the legislature
could actually do to prevent abuse of power by the president.
This was especially the case with Balaguer, who governed the
country with considerable discretion and little effective congressional
oversight.
Congress showed more independence during the PRE) governments
of Antonio Guzman and Salvador Jorge Blanco
between 1978 and 1986, and again under the PLD government
of Leonel Fernandez (1996-2000). In addition, during his
1986-96 period in office, Balaguer was more limited in his ability
to ignore or sidestep Congress than he had been during the
1966-78 period when he had comfortable majorities in both
chambers. Even the earlier Balaguer administrations occasionally
confronted an obstructionist Congress, however. Indeed,
the major power of Congress has been to obstruct and to
delay—whether in the pursuit of personal or parochial gain,
responding to the wishes of interest groups or other societal
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