ABSTRACT
The Dominican Republic experienced substantial social and economic change after the fall of Rafael Trujillo's dictatorship. Joaquiin Balaguer emerged as a Bonapartist ruler out of the crisis of political domination of 1961 to 1965 to effect a modernization that the bourgeoisie was too weak to implement on its own. The emergence of a dependent financial and industrial bourgeoisie was the most important development of the Balaguer administration. This new class emerged under state protection but remained subordinated to foreign capital. United States intervention in Dominican political affairs had once again played an important role in the process of social and political change. The United States, having helped to install Balaguer's Bonapartist regime, contributed to the regime's removal when it proved unable to overcome the contradictions of capitalist modernization and the drop in the international market price for the main Dominican export product.
