Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
which was followed in the nineteenth century by foreign invasion
and occupation by neighboring Haiti, a brief reoccupation
by Spain, numerous civil wars, and economic ruin. These factors
inhibited the possibility of national integration or the construction
of a viable central state. As a result, the country
experienced considerable political instability even as all early
efforts to extend liberal rule in the country failed. According
to Dominican historian Mu-Kien Sang, between 1840 and 1900
the Dominican Republic had fifty-six governments, of which
only four comprised administrations that were able to complete
their constitutional period; furthermore, seventeen individuals
governed for less than a year, and 271 rebellions or
armed uprisings occurred. The country ended the nineteenth
century with the increasingly despotic seventeen-year rule of
Ulises Heureaux (1882-99); his assassination, in turn, led to a
renewed period of tremendous upheaval, aggravating the
country's debt problems. Into the twentieth century, the country
was marked by a weak church, insecure economic elites,
and the absence of an effective national military institution, as
well as by high levels of poverty and low levels of social or political
organization.
The turn of the century was also marked by increasing
dependence on the United States, which ultimately led to the
United States occupation of 1916-24. This occupation in turn,
through its establishment of a constabulary force with Rafael
Trujillo Molina at its head and its improvements in the country's
transportation and communications infrastructure,
helped set the stage for the rise and the consolidation in power
of Trujillo in 1930 (see The Trujillo Era, 1930-61, ch. 1).
Trujillo governed the country from 1930 to 1961; during that
time, he built a state and constructed a nation, although his
methods were brutal and his discourse racist. Under Trujillo,
there was seemingly complete respect for the forms of democracy.
The country had a congress, a judiciary, regular elections,
and the formal passage of laws, but these institutions were a
meaningless charade carefully manipulated by Trujillo. His
massive economic holdings, which became state patrimony
upon his death, evolved into major economic liabilities for the
country. In addition, Trujillo's political style of centralization
of power, cynical manipulation of individuals, and constitutional
hypocrisy had a profoundly negative impact on the country's
political culture.
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