Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
efforts were made to develop community spirit, local initiative,
and self-help projects. These projects were not wholly successful,
in large part because of the traditional arrangement under
which almost all power flowed downward from the central government.
A small step was taken with the passage of a law in
1983 that mandated that a percentage of the country's taxes be
distributed to municipalities. Enforcement of the law, particularly
under President Balaguer, was uneven, however.
In the 1990s, as a consequence of the focus of international
aid agencies on decentralization, the emergence of groups in
Dominican civil society pressuring for change, and the desire
of some opposition political parties to coordinate local development
efforts, additional pressure for change emerged. An
important potential advance took place with the passage of a
January 1997 law providing that 4 percent of the central government's
national budget be transferred to municipal governments.
The law did not clearly specify the functions or
responsibilities of a municipality, however.
Decentralization efforts under President Fernandez, however,
became mired in partisan politics. Following the 1998
local elections, which led to PRD plurality victories in more
than half of the country's municipalities, the PRD expected to
retain control of the secretary generalship of the Dominican
Municipal League and thus of the enhanced resources provided
for under the new law, which promised to be a key source
of patronage. However, the PRD publicly accused the Fernandez
administration of attempting to bribe electors in order to
take control of the League by supporting a candidate from the
PRSC. In January 1999, following several tense incidents
between riot police and PRD party members, two parallel
assemblies elected two different persons as secretary general to
head the League, through which would flow approximately
US$400 million. The candidate of the PRSC supported by the
PLD ultimately gained control of the League offices. In February
1999, President Fernandez proposed a political dialogue in
order to resolve several critical issues including this one, others
such as the composition of the Central Electoral Board leading
up to the 2000 elections, and various key administrative bills
stalemated in Congress (see Electoral System, this ch.). With
regard to the Dominican Municipal League, an ad-hoc committee
of notables was formed to help determine how funds
should be disbursed.
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