Transcript Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic
President: Leonel Fernandez Reyna
Background
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Area: 48,442 sq. km.
Capital: Santo Domingo
Pop 9 million, annual growth rate 1.8%
Language: Spanish
Ethnicity: 73% mixed, 16% European, 11%
African
• Literacy: 84.7%
Government
• Independence 1844 and 1863
• Representative Democracy
– Constitution 1966, amended 2002
– Presidential system
• 31 Provinces and one National District
– Santo Domingo
• Universal suffrage, political parties
Government
• Multi-party political system
• National elections every 2 years
• Presidential system (P/VP on same ticket)
– Direct vote, 4 year terms
– Unitary state – President appoints provincial
governors (31)
• Bicameral Congress
– House of Representatives (178), Senate (32)
• Supreme Court of Justice
– 16
– Ultimate court of appeals
Economy
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GDP: 29.33 billion
Growth Rate: 9.3%
Per capita GDP: 3,247
Economic Sectors:
– Agriculture: sugarcane, coffee, cocoa, bananas,
tobacco, rice
– Industry: cane refining, pharmaceuticals, cement,
construction
– Services: tourism and transportation
– Trade: textiles, sugar, coffee, ferronickel, tobacco, etc.
History
• Taino inhabitants
• Discovery of Hispaniola 1492 – Taino mostly destroyed
in first 50 years of colonization
• Hispaniola ownership:
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1697 ceded by Spain to France
1894 independent from France (Haitian uprising)
1822-1844 Haitians conquer entire island and hold it.
1844 Juan Pablo Duarte – drives Haitians out, founds DR
1861 DR voluntarily returns to Spain
1863-65 independence restored
1916-24 US occupation
1924 democratic elections
1930 Rafael Trujillo establishes dictatorship
Trujillo
• 1930-1961 military dictatorship ending in
Trujillo’s assassination, family exiled.
• Promoted economic development
• Corruption, mismanagement
• Severe repression
• 1960 OAS imposed diplomatic sanctions
because of Trujillo’s support of the effort to
assassinate Betancourt in Venezuela.
• 1961-66 efforts to democratize:
– Elections, coups, occupation by US
Trujillo
• Totalitarian control from 1961-58, period of
decline to assassination.
• Why:
– history: geographic isolation and weak weak
traditional power holders/alternatives
– enhancement of state structures: military
– Ideological arguments: anti-Haitianism, Catholicism
– Economic/political means: co-opted, corrupted and
repressed for his benefit.
– International factors – dependence on USA, US nointervention plus containment policies.
1966 elections
• President Balaguer, Reformist Party (Social Christian
Reformist Party) elected.
• Period of democratic stability ensues:
– 1970, 1974 Balaguer re-elected
– 1978 defeated by Antonio Gizman (Dominican Revolutionary
Party); first peaceful transfer of power from one elected president
to another.
• 1982 elections PRD candidate wins – era of two party
domination between PRD and SCRP ensues
• Occasional complaints of electoral fraud other problems
have resulted in amendments to the constitution
• Since 1996 elections viewed as free and fair.
Joaquin Balaguer legacy
• Authoritarian modernization.
• Governs via electoral processes for 22 years
• Combines political stagnation with socio-economic
transformation
– 1966-78 growth averages 7.6% real GDP
– ISI stimulated growth accelerates to 11% between 1968-74.
• Stable party structure but dominated by authoritarian
framework around Balaguer.
– Parties were not strengthened.
– Military remains strong unchallenged but managed in this time
period.
• Possibility of political factionalism emerges from this era.
• Institutional weakness another important legacy
Political History
• 1989 the Dominican Republic had gone
through 29 constitutions in less than 150
years of independence.
• somewhat deceiving indicator of political
stability
– Dominican practice is to adopt new
constitution whenever amended
Positive developments
• Sustained economic growth beginning in 1960s
and continuing to today despite downturn in
1980s.
– Economic growth challenged by crisis in 80-90s
forced state to subsidize state enterprises and not
draw resources from them.
– Awareness of tourism’s sensitivity to political stability?
• Civil society has diversified
– Business groups
– Sharp inequalities still persist.
Ethnic cleavage
• Dominican Republic has defined itself in opposition to
Haiti
• DR is primarily mulatto but Balaguer sought to project
white, catholic presence, view.
• Indigenous population gone but many self identify with
this past
• Migration from Haiti to Dominican Republic has been
consistent
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Prejudice, denial of rights, source of cheap labor
Haitian Afro-blackness versus Dominican
Social construction of race: gradations of black
Race or nationality?
Dominicans reject blackness; reject Haitians (bc/they are
Haitians not bc/they are black).
Contemporary Challenges
• Enactment of far reaching market structural reforms
which allow the country to maintain economic growth
and respond to the challenges of globalization.
• Current institutional framework combines presidentialism
with fragmented party system. Reducing the ability of
the executive to retain power (introduces the possibility
of instability).
• Political party system is in transition. Historic leadership
is falling away, replacement is unknown
• Increasing efficiency, accountability, transparency of key
political institutions.