The Unraveling of Representative Democracy in Venezuela

For four decades, Venezuela prided itself for having one of the most stable representative democracies in Latin America. Then, in 1992, Hugo Chávez Frías attempted an unsuccessful military coup. Six years later, he was elected president. Once in power, Chávez 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 Chávez 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; Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution; and the course of "participatory democracy" under Chávez. The contributors analyze such factors as the vulnerability of Venezuelan democracy before Chávez; 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; José Antonio Gil, Yepes Datanalisis; Richard S. Hillman, St. John Fisher College; Janet Kelly, Graduate Institute of Business, Caracas; José E. Molina, University of Zulia; Mosés Naím, 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.

Table of 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

About the Author :
Jennifer L. McCoy is a professor of political science at Georgia State University and director of the Americas Program at the Carter Center. David J. Myers is a professor of political science at Pennsylvania State University.

Review :
The contributors to this edited volume show the negative political impact of an economy based on oil exports and dependent on the global price of oil. —Choice This sobering postmortem reveals with depressing clarity the conditions that gave rise to Venezuela's Hugo Chávez. —Richard Feinberg, Foreign Affairs Provides the best contextual understanding of Venezuelan politics, both today and in recent decades. —Alan Siaroff, Political Studies Review The breadth of the editors' approach is a welcome corrective to those works on Venezuela that focus almost exclusively on institutional arrangements including electoral systems and the rules governing executive power. —Steve Ellner, Journal of Latin American Studies This volume is a welcome addition to the rather thin body of scholarship on Venezuela. —Matthew Søberg Shugart, Perspectives on Politics An excellent edited volume that updates the literature on several aspects of Venezuela's political system. —Kirk A. Hawkins, Latin American Politics and Society Important book. —Maxwell A. Cameron, Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies