Survey of the Americas Barometer presented

SANTO DOMINGO. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Center for Governance and Social Management of Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (CEGES / INTEC) presented the most recent study of the “Political Culture of Democracy in the Dominican Republic and the Americas 2014: Democratic Governance through 10 years of the AmericasBarometer” survey. 

According to the survey, the Dominican Republic exhibits a relatively high rate in the region (23,3%) of corruption victimization. As with crime, victimization by corruption has intensified and 2014 affected the 23,3% of the Dominican respondents personally. Among the countries of the Americas, the Dominican Republic shows the eighth highest rate in terms of experiences reported with corruption. 

The perception that corruption is widespread is common, since the majority (53%) of the Dominican respondents indicated that corruption is "very widespread" in the 2014 survey and 29% considers it "somewhat generalized".

Institutional trust did not improve in the Dominican Republic in any social, political or public institution in 2014 in relation to 2012; in fact, in most cases it has decreased. The worst evaluated institutions are Congress and political parties.

For the Dominican Republic, in total, an 37,1% of those interviewed indicated that they had received a clientelist offer in the campaign or knew someone who received such an offer. This is the highest percentage among the countries surveyed.

The Dominican Republic ranks first in the region in the percentage of respondents who said they received public assistance: 38.1% said they had (or someone in their home) a Solidarity Card.

The 2014 report presents the results on the experiences associated with crime and insecurity in the region, the assessment that citizens make of the economy and corruption, institutional trust, partisanship, clientelism, social assistance, and social inclusion

The Report reveals that the Dominican Republic is in a relatively high position among the countries of the region with 38,8% of respondents reporting insecurity as the most important problem facing the country. 

Crime victimization rates have remained relatively stable in the region, but not in the Dominican Republic, where reports of incidents of crime increased.

The Dominican Republic is also among the countries in the region with the highest perception of citizen insecurity, and the perception of insecurity deteriorated significantly between 2012 and 2014.

The population in the region owns more basic capital goods in the home than at any other time in the last decade. However, although households own more goods, they do not necessarily feel more financially secure. This finding is particularly significant for the Dominican Republic which has one of the most unfavorable regional averages (36,0) in the scale of perceptions of the household economic situation; and among Dominicans, the majority (68%) reports that their income does not reach them and they have difficulties to cover their regular expenses.

The Barometer of the Americas, as this survey is also known, is a survey of the Public Opinion Project of Latin America (LAPOP), conducted by Vanderbilt University, and aims to measure democratic values, as well as changes and continuities in the political culture of citizens in the region. 

The Barometer of the Americas surveys, from 2004 to 2014, allow us to know the changes and continuities in vital indicators for the quality and health of democracy in the Americas. The results were presented by Dr. Rosario Espinal, a sociologist and professor at Temple University in Philadelphia and co-author of the study.