From the assassination of Rafael Trujillo in 1961 until the presidential election of Leonel Fernández in 1996, the Dominican Republic moved from a dictatorship to a fledgling democracy about which Jonathan Hartlyn is cautiously optimistic. The Dominican Republic’s transition to a democratic state was hampered by its colonial past, over 100 years of political instability, and 30 years of a repressive dictatorship. None of these experiences provided the opportunity for the establishment of viable political institutions, legitimate political participation by the masses, or open political debates. Instead, the country endured a long history of elitist self-serving administrators, foreign interventions, and exploitation that resulted in a stratified society and an underdeveloped economy.
Hartlyn quickly summarizes Dominican history until 1961 in order to focus on the more recent past during which he finds two high-water marks in the nation’s politics, namely, the elections of 1978 and 1996. In 1978 Joaquín Balaguer, the...
