The Deep Roots and Local Consequences of Dominican Centralism

The Dominican state developed as an exceptionally centralized entity, in law from the time of independence in 1844 and in practice from the early 20th century. Communication advances bequeathed by a U.S. military occupation (1916–1924) facilitated the sweeping dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo (1930–1961). In a very poor nation, centralism was accepted by many population groups as one road to development. By the late 1980s, municipalities oft en could not discharge the few administrative functions (including street cleaning, garbage collection, and oversight of parks, markets, and cemeteries) that they were assigned. Social discontent and protest movements grew in urban areas during this period, placing improvement in town and city services on the national agenda for reform. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.