The position of councilman pays
no salary and is not of sufficient importance to appeal to the
politician, so that under the present system the principal merchants
and other prominent men are frequently designated. The law does not
prohibit foreigners from forming part of the municipal councils and
they have frequently been chosen, especially in Puerto Plata.
CHAPTER XIX
POLITICS AND REVOLUTIONS
Political parties.--Elections.--Relation between politics and
revolutions.--Conduct of revolutions.--Casualties.--Number of
revolutions.--Effect of revolutions.
The characteristic features of Dominican politics are the violence of
political antagonism and the absence of differences of principle
between the political parties. None of the three parties existing
to-day has a platform, and the distinction between them is entirely a
matter of the personality of the leaders. Each party alleges that it
has the best people and the purest motives and views with alarm the
government of the country by any other party. In practice therefore,
politics follows the rule only too common in the Spanish-American
countries, of resolving itself into a personal struggle between the
"ins" and the "outs.
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