Power Structure and Patronage in a Community of the Dominican Republic

Abstract

In this paper it is intended to present the “political ethnography” of Villalta, a community in the Dominican Republic, from the period before the rise of Trujillo until May 1968, when municipal elections were held throughout the country. The principal concern is to show how the power structure and system of patronage which developed in Villalta during the Trujillo years has responded to the political fortunes of the country since the death of Trujillo.Much of the discussion will deal with a small group of men who are the principal dispensers of political patronage and who, over the years, have represented the community to the outside. At lower levels, those who acquiesce to the judgment of these men frequently do so in accordance with patron-client ties. Because of both political and economic change within and outside the community, the basis on which this acquiescence has rested, has undergone change and the position of the power-holders has been rendered more tenuous.