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Full Description
For four decades, Venezuela prided itself for having one of the most stable representative democracies in Latin America. Then, in 1992, Hugo Chavez Frias attempted an unsuccessful military coup. Six years later, he was elected president. Once in power, Chavez redrafted the 1961 constitution, dissolved the Congress, dismissed judges, and marginalized rival political parties. In a bid to create direct democracy, other Latin American democracies watched with mixed reactions: if representative democracy could break down so quickly in Venezuela, it could easily happen in countries with less-established traditions. On the other hand, would Chavez create a new form of democracy to redress the plight of the marginalized poor? In this volume of essays, leading scholars from Venezuela and the United States ask why representative democracy in Venezuela unraveled so swiftly and whether it can be restored. Its thirteen chapters examine the crisis in three periods: the unraveling of Punto Fijo democracy; Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution; and the course of "participatory democracy" under Chavez.
The contributors analyze such factors as the vulnerability of Venezuelan democracy before Chavez; the role of political parties, organized labor, the urban poor, the military, and businessmen; and the impact of public and economic policy. This timely volume offers important lessons for comparative regime change within hybrid democracies. Contributors: Damarys Canache, Florida State University; Rafael de la Cruz, Inter-American Development Bank; Jose Antonio Gil, Yepes Datanalisis; Richard S. Hillman, St. John Fisher College; Janet Kelly, Graduate Institute of Business, Caracas; Jose E. Molina, University of Zulia; Moses Naim, Foreign Policy; Nelson Ortiz, Caracas Stock Exchange; Pedro A. Palma, Graduate Institute of Business, Caracas; Carlos A. Romero and Luis Salamanca, Central University of Venezuela; Harold Trinkunas, Naval Postgraduate School.
Contents
Foreword
Preface and Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Part I: Antecedents: The Foundations of the Punto Fijo Regime of Representative Democracy
Chapter 1. The Normalization of Punto Fijo Democracy
Part II: The Actors: Making Political Demands
Chapter 2. Urban Poor and Political Order
Chapter 3. The Military: From Marginalization to Center Stage
Chapter 4. Entrepreneurs: Profits without Power?
Chapter 5. Civil Society: Late Bloomers
Chapter 6. Intellectuals: An Elite Divided
Chapter 7. The United States and Venezuela: From a Special Relationship to Wary Neighbors
Chapter 8. The Unraveling of Venezuela's Party System: From Party Rule to Personalistic Politics and Deinstitutionalization
Part III: Policy Making and Its Consequences
Chapter 9. Decentralization: Key to Understanding a Changing Nation
Chapter 10. The Syndrome of Economic Decline and the Quest for Change
Chapter 11. Public Opinion, Political Socialization, and Regime Stabilization
Part IV: Conclusion
Chapter 12. From Representative to Participatory Democracy? Regime Transformation in Venezuela
Notes
Glossary
References
List of Contributors
Index
