Political Dynamics, Economic Challenges, Immigration, and Foreign Policy

Political Dynamics, Economic Challenges, Immigration, and Foreign Policy

In the last section discussing the Dominican Republic; I covered the topics of gender, class, and religion and how diversity is brought within these three things amongst the Dominican population. This section is basically going more in depth inside the Dominican Republic. By more in depth I am going over the dynamics of the political realm, the challenges the D.R. faces within the economy, and really how globalization is affecting the Dominican Republic.

The political dynamics of the Dominican Republic consist of three branches just like the ones we have here in the United States: an Executive, Judicial, and Legislative branch.

The Executive has long been the dominant branch in the Dominican governmental system. The president of the Dominican Republic is both the Head of State and the Head of Government, and is Commander in Chief of the armed forces. The Dominican Constitution takes twenty-seven paragraphs to spell out the president's extensive powers (Warf/pg. 15). Among the most important are those that grant him authority over virtually all appointments and removals of public officials, and even popular elected ones; empower him to announce the laws passed by Congress; direct him to engage in diplomatic relations; and empower him to command, to deploy, and to make appointments in, the armed forces. Along with the Executive Branch comes the control of the military (Warf/pg. 17). The military consists of about 44,000 active duty personnel. Its principal mission is to defend the nation, but it serves more as an internal security force. The army, twice as large as the other services combined, consists of four infantry brigades and a combat support brigade; the air force operates three flying squadrons; and the navy maintains 30 aging vessels. The Dominican Republic's military is second in size to Cuba's in the Caribbean. The armed forces participate fully in counter-narcotics efforts. They also are active in efforts to control contraband and illegal immigration from Haiti to the Dominican Republic and from the Dominican Republic to the United States and Puerto Rico.

The Judicial Power is in charge of administering justice in order to ensure the respect, protection and supervision of rights recognized under the Constitution and its laws (Warf/pg.18) . Its higher organ is the Supreme Court of Justice, which is composed of 16 judges appointed by the National Council of Magistrates, an entity created by the constitutional reform of 1994 to ensure the independence of the Judicial Branch. The Supreme Court hears appeals from lower courts and chooses members of lower courts. It has sole jurisdiction over actions against the President, designated members of his cabinet, and members of Congress. It has administrative and financial freedom. Apart from working as an appeals court for all judgments