Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

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Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
ual's political status. This historical tendency has changed
slightly in recent years, particularly as parties have begun to try
to build national constituencies and to compete for lesser
offices.
In the 1870s and 1880s, the emergence of the Liberal Party
(Parti Liberal—PL) and the National Party (Parti National
PN) reflected the polarization between black and mulatto
elites. In the wake of the United States occupation (1915-34),
nationalist parties organized around the issue of resistance to
foreign occupation. During the presidential campaign of 1946,
there were many candidates and parties, including the Popular
Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste Populaire—PSP) , Worker Peasant
Movement (Mouvement Ouvrier Paysan—MOP), Communist
Party of Haiti (Parti Communiste d'Haiti—PCH), and a
federation of groups known as the Haitian Revolutionary Front
(Front Revolutionnaire Haitien—FRH)
The presidential campaign of 1956-57 included candidates
who ran under the banners of the National Agricultural Industrial
Party (Parti Agricole et Industriel National—PAIN) , the
MOP, the PN, and the National Unity Party (Parti Unite
National—PUN), which was led by Francois Duvalier. Both
Duvalier governments banned, or severely restricted, opposition
political parties. As a result, about a dozen opposition parties
operated in exile, including the established PAIN and
MOP, and such newcomers as the National Political Assembly
of Democrats (Rassemblement Democratique National Politique—RDNP)
formed by Leslie Manigat in Venezuela, the
Unified Haitian Communist Party (Parti Unifie des Communistes
Haitiens—PUCH) based in France, and the National
Progressive Revolutionary Haitian Party (Parti National Progressiste
Revolutionnaire Haitien—Panpra) headed by Francebased
Serge Gilles.
With the ouster of the Duvalier dictatorship, exiled parties
shifted their activities to Haiti, often coinciding with the "triumphal"
return home of their leaders. During the presidential
campaign of 1987, more than 100 individuals announced their
candidacy. As of August 1987, twenty-one political parties had
registered. None of these parties, however, developed a nationwide
organization, although four of them stood out from the
rest prior to the violence that sabotaged the election: the Christian
Democrat Party of Haiti (Parti Democrate Chretien
d'Haiti—PDCH), led by Sylvio Claude; the Movement for the
Installation of Democracy in Haiti (Mouvement pour l'lnstau-
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