Even though University of Massachusetts Political Science Professor Howard J. Wiarda has departed from the Caribbean as a research area, and concentrated on the Iberian Peninsula, he remains the most knowledgeable Dominicanista in the world today, especially in the post-Era de Trujillo period.
Michael J. Kryzanek teaches in the Political Science Department of Bridgewater State College, Massachusetts. He has concentrated upon Dominican Republic political parties, opposition political tactics and democratic-left parties in Latin America.
Wiarda and Kryzanek see the Dominican Republic as a crucible of circum-Caribbean politics and economic development; a geostrategic area that President Ronald Reagan has belatedly recognized. Because of discriminatory United States quota restrictions upon foreign-grown sugar cane, and manufactured-goods’ tariffs, a nation like the Dominican Republic, with a relatively prosperous economic development, democratic-left government, and an example of what United States policy-makers have been attempting to achieve all over the Western Hemisphere, will probably be penalized under the Reagan administration’s plans.
After excellently covering the Dominican Republic’s social, political, and economic institutions and processes, the authors present a fascinating analysis of public policy-making in the Dominican Republic. They correctly point out that the Dominican Republic is a perfect example of such “dependency variables” as: declining sugar revenues; increased prices for oil; inflated prices for imported manufactured goods; reduced capital investment; shortages of technical equipment, also imported from the outside; or United States disfavor with a regime or policy that is introduced into the country. These sometimes result in severe setbacks in the country’s development efforts. Its fragile political system might become destabilized as well (p. 122).
The authors conclude by describing the Dominican Republic in the international arena, especially relations with the vitally important United States government as one of “suprasovereignty” (p. 126).
Their fine work is a most suitable addition to Westview Press, Frederick A. Praeger, Publisher’s Nations of Contemporary Latin America series, edited by Ronald M. Schneider.
