The Development of Capitalist Agriculture and State Formation in the Dominican Republic, 1870-1924

This article looks at the development of the sugar industry and the traditional export sectors of Dominican agriculture in relationship to state formation. It seeks to show that early on it their development the pioneers of the sugar industry helped lay the basis for the emergence of a local bourgeoisie and that the traditional export sectors failed to raise above small-scale production and its consequences. The integration of the Dominican economy into the international capitalist system inhibited the development of these two sectors in Dominican society, a pattern that was reflected in the formation of a weak state. In examining the formation of the state, this investigation establishes a distinction between political regime and the state. Following Fernando Henrique Cardoso, political regime is defined as the formal rules that link the main political institutions (legislature to the executive, executive to the judiciary, and party system to them all), as well as the issue of the political nature of the ties between citizens and rulers. In highly abstract terms, the notion of state refers to the basic alliance, the basic \u27pact of domination,\u27 and the orms which guarantee their dominance over the subordinate strata. In the words of Oscar Oszlak, the state is a social relationship, a political medium through which a system of social domination is articulated. Thus, this study focuses on the relationship between class and state, that is, how class forces shaped themselves in relation to the early development of the capitalist state, and not on the political regime

The Dominican Grassroots Movement and the Organized Left, 1978–1986

Through their struggles for better services, grassroots movements played a large role in the process of democratization and construction of social citizenship in the Dominican Republic. The modern grassroots movement, especially in relation to the uprising of April 1984, challenged the government\u27s neoliberal policies and opened the way for the emergence of an independent movement that confronted both left-wing parties and organized labor. However, because the gains from expanding social citizenship remained limited in the face of the Dominican state\u27s inability to formulate socio-economic policies, the movements at best posed a worthwhile goal that Dominican society may revisit in the near future

The Dominican Republic-- After the Caudillos

The Dominican Republic played a major role in the early history of NACLA, and it is therefore fitting that the country be re-examined in one of NACLA\u27s thirtieth anniversary issues. It was largely in response to the 1965 U.S. invasion and occupation of the island that a group of academics, clergy and radical activists organized a 1966 conference called the North American Congress on Latin America. The congress stayed together beyond the conference, and in February, 1967, began publishing the NACLA Newsletter, which evolved into today\u27s NACLA Report on the Americas

Emelio Betances, Professor of Sociology and Latin American Studies

In this new Next Page column, Emelio Betances, Professor of Sociology and Latin American Studies, talks about how growing up during turbulent political times in the Dominican Republic sparked his passion for reading and why he\u27s such a fan of authors J.M. Coetzee and Orhan Pamuk

Republica Dominicana: Crisis del Bipartidismo en las Elecciones de 1990

The Dominican Revolutionary Party\u27s inability to fulfill its historic program of political and economic democracy, coupled with a series of struggles within the party group, have opened the way for the historic contest between Joaquin Balaguer and Juan Bosch. The nature of this ideological war was inevitable because, since the U.S. military intervention in 1965, Balaguer and Bosch had represented in the country mixed views on both the economy and politics. While Balaguer\u27s dictatorial governments from 1966 to 1978 are considered the legacy of the United States military intervention in 1965, Bosch is seen as the main nationalist critical of representative democracy. Since early 1970, Bosch had denounced the falsehoods of representative democracy, and in 1973, left the Dominican Revolutionary Party and founded the Dominican Liberation Party, founded on a program based on the nationalist left

The Catholic Church and Political Mediation in the Dominican Republic: A Comparative Perspective

This essay looks at the Catholic Church and political mediation in the Dominican Republic during the 1980\u27s and 1990\u27s. It opens with a review of the Latin American context regarding the transition to democracy, the debt crisis, and the church\u27s response to the new political reality. It draws some comparisons from Bolivia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala, where the church played an important role mediating political conflicts. The core of the article concentrates on three parts: the Dominican transition to democracy, the church mediation in the Tripartite Dialogue of the 1980\u27s and early 1990\u27s, and in the general elections of 1986 and 1994

The Formation of the Dominican Capitalist State and the United States Military Occupation of 1916-1924

The United States policy towards the Caribbean and Central America during the 1980s repeats an interventionist pattern which occurred early in the twentieth century. Then, the United States set up strong national governments which organized export economies and local political power. Today, social and political developments in the region have outgrown the political scheme created at the beginning of the century. Thus, the recurrent United States intrusion in the region to recreate the old political structures. An historico-sociological analysis becomes necessary to place current events in perspective and shed light in understanding the pattern of regional political development. This study shows that the political instability that followed President Ulises Heureaux\u27s assassination in 1899 forced a series of changes on the U.S. policy toward the Dominican Republic. First, the U.S. sought to collaborate with local political elites in order to organize a strong national government by supporting the regime of Ramon Caceres (1906-1911) and signing the Dominican-American Convention of 1907. However, the assassination of Ramon Caceres in 1911, and the political instability that ensured, led the United States policy makers to exclude local political elites from developing a strong national government. Second, nationalist resistance combined with North American opposition to President Woodrow Wilson\u27s military occupation forced a new change on U.S. policy toward the Dominican Republic. After 1919 the U.S. began to modify its policy of excluding local political elites in organizing national government

What Happens to Social Movements When They Succeed: The Case of the 4 Percent for Education in the Dominican Republic

A political opportunity structure that emerged in the Dominican Republic between 2009 and 2012 facilitated the victory of a movement that forced the government to begin spending 4 percent of the gross domestic product on preuniversity education, but the movement was unable to develop a social base that would ensure the effective implementation of its demand. This case suggests that a movement’s success in reaching its formal goal is just the first stage in a struggle whose second stage is continued pressure on the state to ensure that demands are implemented

Mexico: El Retorno del Estado Desarrollista?

El análisis se enfoca en tres elementos fundamentales: el inicio de dos grandes proyectos de infraestructura, la conformación de la Guardia Nacional para enfrentar la inseguridad y la aplicación de programas sociales para reducir la pobreza. Se concluye que la gestión de Andrés Manuel López Obrador ha empezado un proceso de transformación que va teniendo cierto éxito en el aspecto político y social, pero queda pendiente la economía, cuyo crecimiento se mantuvo en cero, la violencia del narcotráfico, que no se logró disminuir, y un partido gobernante que aún no logra resolver sus problemas internos

La cultura política autoritaria en la República Dominicana

La generalidad de los observadores sostiene que la cultura política latinoamericana es autoritaria y que este es un factor que condiciona el desarrollo de la democracia. Sin duda esto se percibe en la cultura política dominicana. ¿Qué ha pasado en la vida de la mayoría de los dominicanos contemporáneos que les ha llevado a preferir el autoritarismo y no la democracia? ¿Podríamos preguntarnos si la conducta política se puede explicar por el factor cultural? En este trabajo sostenemos que el enfoque cultural por sí mismo no logra captar toda la complejidad del fenómeno. Por esto es necesario ampliar este enfoque con una perspectiva sociológica que explique cómo la estructura socio-económica, el régimen político, los partidos políticos, la Iglesia Católica y las fuerzas armadas, han marcado el desarrollo de la conducta política en el país