Social Christian Reformist Party

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Dominican Republic
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The Social Christian Reformist Party (Spanish: Partido Reformista Social Cristiano, PRSC) is a conservative populist party in the Dominican Republic formed by Joaquín Balaguer and his political heirs in the Dominican Republic. As such, it also inherits much of the nationalist, anti-communist, and anti-Haitian rhetoric of Balaguer's political mentor, Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, and his Partido Dominicano. Some of the PRSC's founders and leaders were originally business leaders and Roman Catholics who opposed the Communist or democratic socialist tendencies of Juan Bosch and José Francisco Peña Gómez, of the PRD and PLD. It remains the party of business. However, as is the case with most party politics in the Dominican Republic, the party remains pragmatically populist.

Populism in the Dominican Republic means that candidates win by impressing poor people with promises and personal charisma. Individuals vote based on the likelihood that their personal position will be improved by the vote. The state is poor but paternalistic, and so limited government resources – in the shape of employment opportunities, public works, funding, and free food – are to a certain extent passed out based on party membership. (See: Politics of the Dominican Republic.)

Another important characteristic of politics in the Dominican Republic is the predominance of strong charismatic leaders in place of ideology. Balaguer assembled a machine that helped decide elections even after he was out of power and infirm. At the legislative elections, 16 may 2002, the party won 24.3 % of the popular vote and 36 out of 150 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 1 out of 31 seats in the Senate. Its candidate at the presidential election of 16 may 2004, Eduardo Estrella, won 8.6 % of the vote.

In the 16 May 2006 legislative elections, the party formed together with its traditional opponent, the Dominican Revolutionary Party, and others the Grand National Alliance, that won only 82 out of 178 deputies and 10 out of 32 senators. The Social Christian Reform Party itself won 23 seats in the chamber of deputies and 4 seats in the senate, taking a distant third place compared to the Dominican Liberation Party, which won the election, and the Dominican Revolutionary Party.