Reforming the Reform: Public Health Policy in the Dominican Republic

Introduction: (First paragraph only) The Dominican Republic is located south of Florida and east of Cuba, on the Eastern side Hispaniola; on the western side is Haiti. The Republic operates as representative democracy, with a bicameral national congress comprised of a Senate with 32 members and a Chamber of Deputies that operates similarly to the United States House of Representatives. Elections are held every 4 years for the presidency, and government is formed through a coalition of the three major parties, the Dominican Liberal Party (PLD), the Dominican Reformist Party (PRD), and the Social Christian Reformist Party. The judiciary is based on the US model as of 1994, and the Supreme Court is comprised of 16 judges. Many of the country’s governmental institutions and organs are relatively nascent—most being incepted in the early 1990s—and as such it is critical to pay attention to these institutional shifts.