Struggle for Democratic Politics in the Dominican Republic

Over the past several decades, the Dominican Republic has

experienced striking political stagnation in spite of dramatic

socioeconomic transformations. In this work, Jonathan Hartlyn

offers a new explanation for the country's political evolution,

based on a broad comparative perspective.

Hartlyn rejects cultural explanations unduly focused on

legacies from the Spanish colonial era and structural

explanations excessively centered on the lack of national

autonomy. Instead, he highlights the independent impact of

political and institutional factors and historical legacies,

while also considering changes in Dominican society and the

influence of the United States and other international forces.

In particular, Hartlyn examines how the Dominican Republic's

tragic nineteenth-century history established a legacy of

neopatrimonialism, a form of rule that found extreme expression

in the brutal dictator Rafael Trujillo and has continued to shape

politics down to the present. By examining economic policymaking

and often conflictual elections, Hartlyn also analyzes the missed

opportunity for democracy during the rule of the Dominican

Revolutionary Party and the democratic tensions of the

administrations of Joaquin Balaguer.