Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
sionalism of the armed forces. Yet, the military institution (or
parts of it) remains a potential instrument of the president in
power because it has not yet developed into a professional,
well-organized semiautonomous but democratically accountable
state institution. Furthermore, in the absence of a professional,
apolitical ethos, it is also possible for politically
ambitious individuals within the military to rise through the
ranks and represent a potential threat to civilian authority.
Foreign Relations
The Dominican Republic is a relatively small and weak country,
heavily dependent on the outside world economically and
strategically, and located in the center of what was an important
area for Cold War conflict in the world—the volatile Caribbean.
Because of these factors, various outside actors have long
exercised a significant degree of influence in the island
nation's internal politics.
In the early nineteenth century, the principal outside actors
were Spain, France, and Britain; toward the end of the century,
Germany and the United States had also become involved in
Dominican affairs. The United States has remained a central
actor in Dominican affairs ever since. Because the Dominican
Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, and
because Haiti represented a constant threat to the Dominican
Republic both before and after the Haitian occupation of
1822-44, Haiti also has exerted significant influence (see The
Struggle for Formal Sovereignty and Ambivalent Sovereignty,
Caudillo Rule, and Political Instability, ch. 1). In recent years,
the economic importance of Europe has grown for the country,
particularly because of increased European aid flows and
the large number of Europeans who vacation in the country.
Various transnational actors have played a significant role in
Dominican politics. These include private economic actors
such as multinational corporations, and financial institutions
such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank (see
Glossary) , and the Inter-American Development Bank. They
also include other international political or state actors such as
the Socialist International (the international grouping of social
democratic parties, which was highly involved in Dominican
affairs during the 1970s and 1980s), the international Christian
Democratic Union, the Vatican, and European assistance organized
through the Lome Convention (see Glossary). In recent
years, they have included NGOs, principally from Europe and
204