Mr. Lu asks a very interesting question, and I don't think there is one easy answer.
However, I'd like to offer a somewhat different take on what has been going on in the DR. I'd like to suggest that for significant periods of time between 1961 and present there has been de facto military rule in the DR, and that the facade of a democratically elected government has simply been the contrived window dressing used to placate public opinion.
If you consider the characteristics of a military dictatorship; the top-heavy heirarchy, political power centered in the military/police, the prevailant cronyism and clientism, and the wide-spread corruption, it would certainly appear that the DR displays many of those characteristics.
While the DR can not be described as a full-blown and blatant military dictatorship (something that the US would find embarassing), there is some evidence to suggest that the military holds on to much more real power, and moves more of the country's political agenda than is normal in a true democracy.
|