Dominican Political Regime

In our country, the political regime is presidential, founded on the principle of the separation of powers. In fact, Article 4 of the Constitution establishes that the government is divided into legislative power, executive power and judicial power, proclaiming their independence in the exercise of their respective functions, prohibiting the delegation of their functions, which are only determined by the Constitution and the laws, and establishing the principle of responsibility for their respective officials.

Article 4 states that the government of the nation, established in the Constitution, is civil, republican, democratic and representative.

If the Dominican institutional structure is observed in detail, it can be observed that the Constitution contains mechanisms sufficient for ensuring the normal operation of public powers. Though the idea is often broached that Article 55 of the Constitution is responsible for a type of mega-power of the President of the Republic, head of the executive branch, we have always maintained the position that the article does not exceed the prerogatives given to the president of the republic in constitutions of similar political regimes. The disfunction we have experienced is more due to the absence of a democratic political culture, strong man politics, authoritarian governments, lack of functional and organic independence of the legistlative and judicial powers and the non-existence of an adequate dose of administrative decentralization that effectively guarantees the autonomy of our municipal organization. It is helpful to remember that our Founding Father, Juan Pablo Duarte, in his draft of the constitution, mentioned Municipal Power as a primary power, in addition to the three traditional branches. In the future, we will have to reflect on a Controlling Power that budgets and supervises the acts of the governmental bodies.