DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Spanish Repblica Dominicana, country of the West Indies. It occupies the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola, the second largest island of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. Haiti, also an independent republic, occupies the western third of the island. Hispaniola lies between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east and is situated about 670 miles (1,080 kilometres) southeast of Florida and 310 miles north of Colombia and Venezuela. The northern shores of the Dominican Republic are washed by the Atlantic Ocean, while the southern shore is bordered by the Caribbean Sea. Between the eastern tip of the island and Puerto Rico runs a channel called the Mona Passage. The republic has an area of 18,704 square miles (48,443 square kilometres; including 63 square miles of adjacent islands). The capital is Santo Domingo. The country, although small, occupies a strategic position on major sea routes leading from both Europe and the United States to the Panama Canal. Between 1930 and 1961 the republic's history was dominated by the repressive dictatorship of Rafael Trujilloa ruler who nevertheless maintained internal stability, liquidated the national debt, and introduced a measure of prosperity and modernization. Yet, the human costs were excessive. Since the Trujillo regime large numbers of Dominicans have remained in poverty with little promise of improvement. Spanish Repblica Dominicana, country of the West Indies, comprising the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola and several small, adjacent islands. It is situated about 670 miles (1,080 km) southeast of the U.S. state of Florida, between the Atlantic Ocean to the north and the Caribbean Sea to the south. It is the second largest country, after Cuba, in the West Indies. The Dominican Republic is bordered on the west by Haiti (occupying the western third of the island) and is separated from Puerto Rico to the east by a channel called the Mona Passage. The capital is Santo Domingo. Area 18,704 square miles (48,443 square km). Pop. (1993 est.) 7,620,000. Additional reading Geography Comprehensive treatment is found in Thomas E. Weil et al., Area Handbook for the Dominican Republic, 2nd ed. (1973, reissued as Dominican Republic, a Country Study, 1982). Other general surveys include Ian Bell, The Dominican Republic (1981); and Howard J. Wiarda and Michael J. Kryzanek, The Dominican Republic, a Caribbean Crucible (1982), a discussion of the land, people, economy, and politics in a contemporary and historical setting. A more detailed study of the population and its social and economic situation is found in H. Hoetink, The Dominican People, 18501900: Notes for a Historical Sociology (1982; originally published in Spanish, 1971). Later social and economic developments are studied in Kenneth Evan Sharpe, Peasant Politics: Struggle in a Dominican Village (1977), which discusses local-level politics and the international economic system; and Jos A. Moreno, Barrios in Arms: Revolution in Santo Domingo (1970), a sociologist's eyewitness account of the impact of the 1965 revolution on inner-city Santo Domingo. An analysis of the impact of population migration is presented in Glenn L. Hendricks, The Dominican Diaspora: From the Dominican Republic to New York CityVillagers in Transition (1974). History Robert D. Crassweller, Trujillo: The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator (1966), though a biography, serves as a good introduction to 20th-century history. John Bartlow Martin, Overtaken by Events: The Dominican Crisis from the Fall of Trujillo to the Civil War (1966), is the story of the 1965 revolution written by the former U.S. ambassador; while Abraham E. Lowenthal, The Dominican Intervention (1972), is a historian's analysis of the same events. Interpretive studies of postrevolutionary history include Howard J. Wiarda, Dictatorship, Development, and Disintegration: Politics and Social Change in the Dominican Republic, 3 vol. (1975); and Michael J. Kryzanek and Howard J. Wiarda, The Politics of External Influence in the Dominican Republic (1988). Administration and social conditions Government The executive power is vested in a president, who is also commander in chief of the armed forces, and a vice president. There is a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. The Senate is composed of one representative from each province and one from the National District. The Chamber of Deputies reflects the size of the population but has no fewer than two representatives from each province and two from the National District. The present (1966) constitution, like its numerous predecessors, guarantees human rights, prescribes the division of governmental powers, and provides for popular sovereignty. It also accords suffrage to all Dominicans of either sex over 18 years of age, unless they are members of the armed forces or the police. During the Trujillo regime the armed forces were used to preserve the dictatorship, and even afterward the armed forces have played a role in government. Historically, the various constitutions have provided special emergency powers for the president that have made it possible for the executive to supersede the legislative and judicial branches of the government should the president deem it necessary. While retaining provisions for emergency executive powers, each successive constitution has, nevertheless, expanded the social and economic rights guaranteed in earlier documents. A formal relationship between the Roman Catholic church and the government, incorporated in earlier constitutions, has now been eliminated. The right to private property is guaranteed but is limited by the right of the state to expropriate for the general good. Terms for national elected offices are four years, and incumbents may seek reelection. The nation is divided into 29 provinces and one Distrito Nacional (National District). The central government administers the outlying provinces through governors appointed by the president. Each province elects representatives to the bicameral national congress. Internally, each province is subdivided into municipalities that elect their own councils and enjoy considerable local autonomy. Justice The legal system is based upon the Napoleonic Code. There is a series of regular courts, the judges of which are appointed by the Senate and may have no other public employment. These courts, with the exception of the land and commercial courts, have jurisdiction over both criminal and civil matters. In criminal cases the judicial process begins with an investigation, generally conducted by an investigating judge. This is followed by the trial proper, conducted by the appropriate court. Appeals are made to a superior court and may finally be considered by the Supreme Court, composed of nine justices. Cultural life Folk and fine arts It is difficult to define any particular and unique cultural tradition that may be labeled Dominican. There are, nevertheless, some cultural items worthy of special mention. Music, especially when accompanied by dancing, is important at all social levels and in all regions. The most typical forms are those with clear African antecedents, especially in their rhythms. There are also folk songs and tunes deriving from Spain and the Middle East. The merengue is a particularly popular dance, followed closely by the bolero. The guitar is probably the most popular instrument, but in some rural areas flutes and homemade marimbas are also common. Young people have been influenced by reggae and other modern African-American musical developments, as well as by the different forms of rock music. There is no highly identifiable Dominican national costume. The universities, as well as numerous private literary and cultural organizations, have long fostered an interest in the classical European arts of music, painting, drama, and literature. The country fosters a symphony orchestra, legitimate theatres, and art museums. Numerous local painters produce canvases ranging from exuberant Haitian-style primitives to abstracts and Impressionism. Literature A national spirit in Dominican literature began to develop during the 19th-century Haitian occupation and was led by Flix Maria del Monte, who was best known for his poetry. This trend was continued in the struggle against Spain, that experience being classically represented in the work of Manuel de Jesus Galvn, who depicted Spanish settlers' cruel treatment of the Indians. In the early 20th century, writers such as Amrico Lugo and Gaston Gernando Deligne were influenced by modernism and broke from the 19th-century styles and themes although the U.S. occupation revived some nationalist expression. Contemporary writers have focused to some degree on everyday Dominican life, but a social protest literature also emerged as represented by the works of the reformer Juan Bosch, written largely from exile.