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JUAN BOSCH: THE CONSTRUCTION OF DOMINICAN DEMOCRACY

Author(s): Matias Bosch

Source: Journal of Third World Studies , SPRING, 2006, Vol. 23, No. 1, GLOBALIZATION, PRIVATIZATION, AND NEO-LIBERALISM IN THE CONTEMPORARY THIRD WORLD (SPRING, 2006), pp. 17-21

Published by: University Press of Florida

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JUAN BOSCH: THE CONSTRUCTION OF DOMINICAN DEMOCRACY

By Matias Bosch*

I wish to welcome to the Dominican Republic the participants in the

Twenty-Third Annual meeting of the Association of Third World Studies. I am honored to speak about my grandfather, Juan Bosch, who was a prominent

figure in the fight for Dominican democratic development. His ideas attempted to benefit all of the citizens of this country. This conference is taking place during the fortieth anniversary of the April Revolution, a civic-

military rebellion whose goal was to restore the constitutional government of

Juan Bosch in 1965. The April Revolution eventually became a patriotic war because of the U.S. military intervention, with the complicity of five Organization of American States (OAS) members.1

In keeping with the theme of this conference - "Globalization, Privatization, and Neo-Liberalism in the Contemporary Third World" - I dedicate the following words about democracy. According to Pablo Martinez:

The fight for democracy in the region knows a long, complex and sinuous trajectory. Within the same there has

been internal participation, as antagonistic position, of national sectors, while external forces representative of the

hegemonic power have fallen into, in the majority of cases,

destroying such process. At the time in which Juan Bosch was elected president and later overthrown with a coup d'etat, in the world a lot of important changes were taking

place: we are referring to the crisis of the oligarchical state

to make way to the development of industrialization by substitution of importation, in other words the capitalist

♦Sub-Director, since 2003, of the Fundación Juan Bosch in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Bom in Havana, Cuba in 1977, Mr. Bosch received his B. A. degree in Arts and Sciences from the Universidad Central, Santiago, Chile, in 2001, and will receive his M.A.

in 2006 in Social Sciences from the Universidad de Artres y Ciencias Sociales, Santiago, Chile.

This article is based on the keynote address presented by the author at the banquet held at the 23rd

Annual Meeting of the Association of Third World Studies, Inc., in Santo Domingo, Dominican

Republic, November 20-22, 2005. Journal of Third World Studies, Vol. XXIII, No. 1

© 2006 by Association of Third World Studies, Inc.

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JOURNAL OF THIRD WORLD STUDIES, SPRING 2006

state. But with the doctrine of contention of international

communism, appeared a true bond to the impulse of the development state and of the democratic projects in the region. The triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 would not only modify co-relationship of the political forces

in the region and to reach a new dimension of the security

doctrine of the hemisphere, but also to radicalize the conflicts and bring it to the arena of a confrontation of democracy versus dictatorship. The proposal of a reformed

character, impulse by the hegemonic power to the United States as of the OAS, and through the Alliance of Progress,

would clash with the social emphasis that was placed on by

Latin American leaders, such as poverty.2

I believe that these words reinforce the most important aspects of Juan Bosch's

struggle for the construction of a democratic Dominican society.

Juan Bosch was sworn into office on 27 February 1963. All of his policies, especially the new democratic constitution that was unveiled during his administration, sought to bring about the democratic development of the

Dominican Republic. Bosch's development strategies depended on harnessing the personal fortune of Rafael Trujillo, the brutal dictator assassinated on 30

May 1961. Bosch, however, was only allowed to govern for seven months. He faced powerful geo-political factors that resisted his democratic initiatives.

The coup d'etat that overthrew Bosch in September 1963 was not opposed by the United States and was directly supported by its Defense Attaché in Santo

Domingo

Although the Kennedy administration held that the Dominican Republic was a potential showcase for democracy, Bosch clearly understood that the version of democracy promoted by the United States, albeit compatible with its own social order, was not easily applicable as a copy in the

Latin American context. U.S. foreign policy supported the promotion of democracy in Latin America provided that the Latin Americans protected U.S.

national security and economic concerns in the region. If the U.S. government

felt that its hegemonic interests in the region were threatened, then U.S. policy,

regardless of the consequences to democratic development in the region, withdrew support of democratic regimes.

To paraphrase Alain Touraine3, also geo-politically speaking, democracy is impossible. In addition to external threats to his rule, Bosch faced serious internal threats within Dominican society. After three decades of dictatorship, an authentic political culture responsive to democracy had not

been established in the Dominican Republic. "Democracy" - Bosch points out

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Matias Bosch/Juan Bosch: The Construction of Dominican Democracy

-" is a political system which is sustained by the will of all social sectors, and

of all individuals which have some sort of responsibility to comply as citizens.

If that will is lacking, democracy can not be sustained. In the Dominican Republic, the most influential social sectors which won prestige fighting for

Trujillo's overthrow, conspired in the most vulgar way to overthrow the democratic system."4 What Trujillo's enemies really wanted was to substitute him.

The ideals of Bosch remain strong in the Dominican Republic. His intolerance of corruption, a malignant and insolent phenomenon that has thrived in the Dominican Republic and in Latin America, should serve as a beacon of hope for contemporary political parties. Surely, democracy cannot succeed as long as rampant corruption discredits political parties and the democratic system. Democracy is not merely a system of rules or of institutions that guarantee fundamental liberties and elections. Democracy is,

in the first place, the creation of an independent society. Touraine explains: "If the popular masses are defined more by their exclusions than by their labor,

and if the so-called higher classes are not leaders but only maintain above all

their privileges or a social distancing, if corruption reigns and if a foreign country can intervene militarily in the most serious moments of national life,

how can we speak of democracy?". We find ourselves in a worrisome situation today when we see that

some youth of the Dominican Republic, discontent with current economic difficulties, lament the economic growth and stability associated with the Trujillo era. This trend indicates that democracy is failing. The sustainability

of democracy, therefore, depends not only on the normal functioning of institutionalized policies, but also on how society is developing in its economic and social order.

Clearly, the failure of the economical, institutional and social policies

after Trujillo to ameliorate the economic inequalities in Dominican society has

tarnished the appeal of democracy for many Dominicans. After important advances from 1995 to 2000, in 2002 almost 45 percent of the Dominican population lived in poverty, while 20 percent lived as indigents.5 These figures, similar to the norm in Latin America, reveal a problem endemic to the

developing nations of the region. Many of these people, distressed by the economic failures of democratic governments, have become disillusioned with

democracy as a political concept. It is no longer an "indisputable alternative" to resolve the collective problems. In the Dominican Republic, only 48.4 percent of the people have declared themselves true democrats. The rest are divided among non-democrats and the ambiguous. The figures for the rest of

Latin America indicate that over 66 percent of Latin Americans are

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JOURNAL OF THIRD WORLD STUDIES, SPRING 2006

disenchanted with democracy and believe that politicians do not comply with

their electoral promises and that they lie in order to win elections.6

History shows that poverty leads to rebellions, but never to revolutions. Nevertheless, the democratic revolution in Latin America is

threatened by the great weight of poverty and de-capitalization due to corruption. From the international perspective, I would like to cite Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. Hardt and Negri identified the limitations involved

in the study of national development in several worlds: the first world, the second world, the third world, and even, possibly, a fourth world. These authors claim to disregard the theorization of development that privileges one

quantitative perspective and rejects existing proof of global hierarchies. Between developed and undeveloped countries are economies that do not run in the same lane. These economies, however, find themselves in radically different and even divergent situations-one in a situation of domination and the other in a situation of the dominated.7

Following this insight, we can not determine one possible way for a

fair progress of the development of nations, nor can we neglect the necessity

to ruin the effective relations of domination that have persisted to date. The

growing imposition of the neo-liberal world market should destroy the belief

that one country or region can isolate or by itself recreate conditions for its

development, such as was accomplished by the dominating capitalist countries

after World War II. Furthermore, any intent of isolation or separation would

mean a more brutal domination of the global system, a reduction to the weakness and poverty.

These ideas coincide with those first posited by Bosch over four decades ago. As Touraine said, the set of institutions, decisions, and channels of communication among the decision makers and the population, which permit the integration and unity of society and also enable social conditions and politics by which democracy is possible, must be evaluated on a country-

by-country basis. To sum up, for the success of democratic political systems it is essential that the political system provide fair and equal access to the nation's wealth to all citizens based upon the construction of an autonomy of

economics, politics, and culture, in a fraternal articulation with other nations

of the region. This goal is as relevant and necessary now as when it was first

put forward by Bosch decades ago. Bosch posited the need to construct Dominican democracy: it requires self-determination, political power and vast

popular support. Today, Dominicans are working to do their best to make progress on these challenges.

As Juan Bosch has pointed, "the only certain thing that takes place in

politics, like in life, is that each nation, like each human being, has its own history and they can only advance in the way towards the future following the

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Matias Bosch/Juan Bosch: The Construction of Dominican Democracy

direction that marks its history and by using its own experiences and its own

strengths."8

Thank you for allowing me to speak with you this evening.

NOTES

1 . At least 23,000 U.S. troops, plus other O.A.S. member's troops. 2. Pablo Mariñez. In Democracy in Latin America : Crisis and

Possibilities. Cátedra Profesor Juan Bosch. (Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo. 2004.)

3. Alain Touraine. In Democracy in Latin America: Crisis and Possibilities. Cátedra Profesor Juan Bosch. (Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo. 2004.)

4. Juan Bosch. Crisis de la democracia de America en la República Dominicana. 1964.

5. CEPAL. Panorama Social de America Latina. 2004. 6. PNUD, La Democracia en America Latina. 2004. 7. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. Imperio. (Paidos. 2002.) 8. Juan Bosch. Clases sociales en la República Dominicana. 1975

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