Porfio_Rubirosa said:
That's a fair question. Perhaps it would be better to say that hungry Dominicans vote with their stomachs. From '96 to '00, they weren't hungry, so they voted for what they hoped would be a gravy train.
Short of raping and pillaging, Hippo's government was the worst conceivable, yet the PRD still received 35% of the vote. This means the PRD is far from dead; rather, they start with 35% at each election. The other two parties start with about 10% core support.
What's so odd about the never ending shifts from and to populist governments that Tony is predicting is that the statist party in the DR - the PRSC - is so weak.
There are somethings you have to consider on this comment:
1) The PLD goverment was unimaginably better than what the country had ever seen, but, it introduced many rules and modernized the state to a point that people were not used to see and gave the impression that the law would finally be enforced in all it's aspects, this is scary for many people who live off the uncertainty and ignorance.
2) Many dominicans belong to a party by tradition and therefore, regardless of the situation (economic, security, social stagnation or progress) they would vote for the candidate which represents their party.
Many of my aunts were staunch supporters of the PRD although not openly admitting they supported Hippo, they would critizise those who critizise the goverment.
3) Remember that the 35% PRD you see in the results also includes the inmense government payroll who have absolutely no say on democracy. That's the way it has always been, government employees are there for 4 years unless their party stays in power. This is one of the aspects that the previous PLD administration attempted and to some point changed, giving the civil servants as they are called, some job security from the uncertainty of changing governments. The argument was that the state would train the people and 4 years later they would have to go because their party was changing, therefore a great amount of resources would be wasted, productivity would be coerced because these employees would have to spend most of their time in politics rather than the function for which they are there.
At least, that's how I was told it is....