The Dominican Republic is on the Foreign Policy magazine’s list of countries in real danger of becoming “failed nations.” In the Western Hemisphere, only Haiti and Colombia are on the list of 20 nations that Foreign Policy and the Peace Forum consider as being at risk of failure. According to these sources, unequal development is one of the common symptoms in these countries. Heading the list are Ivory Coast, the Congo and the Sudan. In the first annual report of this nature, Foreign Policy says that unequal development allows injustices to become the principle cause of instability and not just poverty. Demographic pressures and high criminality are also contributing factors. With the exception of Colombia and Iraq, the other countries on the list receive very little foreign aid or international attention. Twelve social, economic, political and military factors were used to measure the different countries. In the first twenty nations listed, the report says that many of the central governments have lost control of their territory or have lost the ability to employ their forces in a legitimate fashion. Other governments lack the capacity to take collective decisions or have lost the capacity to provide public services. In other countries the population depends almost entirely on a black market, does not pay taxes or engages in a lot of civil disobedience. On the list of twenty, Haiti is at number 10, Columbia is at number 14 and the Dominican Republic is at number 19.
See http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=221