In an editorial on Saturday, 29 August 2015, Diario Libre executive editor Adriano Miguel Tejada commented that the Dominican Republic is the Latin American and Caribbean leader when it comes to political patronage.
“For years I have upheld the theory that we Dominicans have become a nation of beggars. Decades of receiving bags, boxes of food, donations and bonuses and many more forms of government handouts have naturally had an impact on the conduct of Dominicans,” he writes. “Politicians are geniuses when it comes to advancing their own interests, especially when they are using someone else’s money, and by keeping the masses poor they can be guided to successive electoral slaughterhouses,” he adds.
He says that the Reformists were the first to spread the crumbs, but they have been surpassed by far by the ruling PLD party. He mentions that they are especially creative when it comes to inventing programs to share their solidarity and philanthropy during electoral times.
He says that is why we should not find it strange that one of the findings of the Study on Political Culture of Democracy in the Dominican Republic and the Americas 2014 by INTEC University and Gallup, with USAID sponsorship, is that our country has the highest rate of political patronage in all of the Americas. The report was supervised by Rosario Espinal of Temple University, Jana Morgan of University of Tennessee and Elizabeth Zechmeister of Vanderbilt University.
“Thanks to political patronage, poverty and political submission is reproduced. That is why efforts are not made to improve the quality of jobs or the levels of dignity of the people. But we cannot complain, we are first in something…”
http://www.diariolibre.com/opinion/am/campeones-en-clientelismo-XF1070743
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/dr/AB2014_Dominican_Republic_Country_Report_V6_W_081815.pdf