Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

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Dominican Republic: Government and Politics
1994 to 16.1 percent in 1998, and in the municipal councils,
which went from 14.7 percent female representation in 1994 to
26.5 percent in 1998. The law also called for the creation of
electoral subdistricts of three to four representatives each in
large multimember provinces such as Santo Domingo and Santiago,
to begin in 2002. Furthermore, the 1997 law permits
Dominicans abroad to vote in presidential elections, beginning
in the year 2000.
Political Parties
For a country with relatively limited experience with political
democracy, the Dominican Republic has a surprisingly strong
set of political parties. However, the party system is currently in
a state of flux as the parties confront the risks of potential fragmentation
over leadership succession issues. Since the 1960s,
the country has had two important political parties: the
Reformist Party (Partido Reformista—PR) , now the Reformist
Social Christian Party (Partido Reformista Social Cristiano
PRSC) , and the Dominican Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario
Dominicano—PRD). A third party, the Party of
Dominican Liberation (Partido de la Liberacion Dominicana—PLD),
was formed in 1973 and gradually became electorally
important in the course of the 1980s. In addition to
these three parties, numerous other minor parties have occasionally
garnered support.
Prior to the Trujillo period (1930-61), parties were weakly
organized, had insubstantial leadership, were neither very
ideological nor programmatic, and were generally based on
personalist followings rather than concrete programs. Trujillo
organized the Dominican Party (Partido Dominicano) to provide
himself with support, even though elections were fraudulent.
Following Trujillo's assassination and the forced exile of
his brothers and then of Balaguer, the party was officially
banned.
When Balaguer returned from exile to campaign for the
presidency in 1966, he recaptured central elements of the conservative
constituency that had formed the bulwark of Trujillo's
support among rural, less-educated, older, and female voters.
He further sustained their loyalty and support by employing
the power of the presidency and state resources on their
behalf. During the 1966-78 period when he was president, several
high-level military figures also played a prominent role in
the party. Moreover, military pressure eased Balaguer's reelec-
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