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Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela

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Jan 30th, 2017
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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. The scholarship on Hugo Chávez and the “Bolivarian Revolution” is nearly as polarized as Venezuelan politics. Fortunately, Venezuelan culture also is characterized by a conviviality that has fostered civility among academic experts and political opponents at face-to-face meetings and conferences, toning down direct attacks upon one another. However, passionate opinions about Chávez inevitably color the analysis of even the most detached social-scientific and historical scholarship. Only in 2005 did Chávez proclaim the Bolivarian Revolution to be “socialist” at a speech before the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. He characterized it as “socialism of the 21st century,” signaling his affinity with leftist intellectuals who maintain the importance of distinguishing new socialist experiments from the failed model of the Soviet Union. As the name implies, the foundation for Venezuelan socialism was to be found, according to Chávez, in the thought of the country’s heroic and iconic historical figure, Simón Bolívar. Bolívar’s liberalism is closer to Rousseau’s than to Locke’s, and his ideas were forged in a social context that included non-Western elements. He died eighteen years before the Communist Manifesto was published, So, Bolivarian socialism is a somewhat uneasy synthesis of Bolívar and Marx. Some sectors of the opposition to Chávez see the Bolivarian project as a pernicious attempt to import and impose the Cuban model (i.e., 20th-century socialism). The friendship between Venezuelan president and Fidel Castro is well known. But Venezuela is an oil-exporting nation with a consumer culture and, despite disillusionment with the performance of the electoral democracy between 1958 and 1998 (known as the “Punto Fijo” era), a popular commitment to pluralist politics. While Bolivarian socialism is yet to be precisely defined, we can safely say that its ideological components include participatory democracy, an economic development model based on solidarity rather than competition, respect for human rights, and diplomacy calculated to put Bolívar’s dream of Pan Americanism back on the hemispheric agenda. To succeed, the Bolivarian project will have to overcome the intense opposition of those convinced that Chávez is an autocrat interested in little more than keeping his own power. However, there is a second, perhaps more serious obstacle. Even in the literature sympathetic to the project, one finds acknowledgement that Bolivarian socialism will have to somehow overcome the deeply seated elective affinity in Venezuela toward centralized personalist rule. Those who want to study Venezuela under Chávez had best be advised to triangulate conflicting studies, discount the conclusions of the most polemical literature (on either side), consult a range (across race and gender, not just political perspectives) of Venezuelan views, and pay close attention to the methodologies employed by researchers.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
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  7. Most of the recent works on Venezuela concentrate on the collapse of the Punto Fijo system and on the character of Chavismo and the Bolivarian government. While some recent scholarship offers basic background on Venezuelan history and culture by way of introduction, it rarely proves as thorough and comprehensive as needed for the researcher who is new to Venezuelan history and would delve deeply into the Bolivarian project. For this reason, this section highlights first literature, mostly published before 1998, that provides deeper historical background or a wide survey (Venezuelan History and Politics), and then separately considers works that offer a broad overview of The Chávez Era itself.
  8.  
  9. Venezuelan History and Politics
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  11. With the exception of a chapter from a modern history text, Skidmore, et al. 2010, the works here were all published before 1998, the year of Chávez’s election. This reflects the tendency of recent 20th- and 21st-century scholarship to focus on the period between the onset of economic difficulties (roughly 1980) to the present. Lombardi 1992 remains the classic English-language history, emphasizing the legacy of caudilloism and positivism on the political culture. Alexander 1982 and Betancourt 1978 are very accessible overviews of Venezuela’s social and political transition from dictatorship to democracy, though obviously shaped by a sympathetic perspective on the role of Acción Democrática (AD), the most important political party of the last century. Ewell 1984 and Ewell 1996 are more detached in this respect. Sosa Abascal and Lengrand 1981 is narrower in focus, but its revisionist approach to understanding the origins of AD’s project of modernization may help readers put the accounts of Alexander and Betancourt in better perspective. Hellinger 1991 reflects Venezuelan revisionist scholarship and is comprehensive, reaching back to the pre-Colombian era. Coronil 1997 is the best single source linking the oil economy to the political culture (see also Tinker Salas 2009, cited under Oil Rents and the Petro-State).
  12.  
  13. Alexander, Robert J. Rómulo Betancourt and the Transformation of Venezuela. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1982.
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  15. The author’s close friendship with his subject makes the book read in many ways like an autobiography (see Betancourt 1978), but there is compensation in Alexander’s deep understanding of Venezuelan culture and ability to make the first part of its 20th-century history accessible to the general public.
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  17. Betancourt, Rómulo. Venezuela: Oil and Politics. Translated by Everett Baumann. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978.
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  19. Written while Betancourt was in exile in New York and published in 1956, two years before he returned and won Venezuela’s first election after the dictatorship of 1948–1958. A highly partisan account, yet passionate and useful for understanding the decades-long struggle for political democracy in the country. Betancourt is lionized by the contemporary opposition to Chávez.
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  21. Coronil, Fernando. The Magical State: Nature, Money, and Modernity in Venezuela. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
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  23. Although published before the electoral victory of Chávez, this text is widely and justly regarded as a cogent interpretation of how the oil export economy generated the illusion of prosperity. Without commensurate labor, technology, and capital, an industrial economy seemed to appear magically, conjured up by the state.
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  25. Ewell, Judith. Venezuela: A Century of Change. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1984.
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  27. Argues that emergence of the oil export economy of the 1920s finally created the conditions under which Venezuela could leave behind tendencies toward caudilloism: that is, the persistence of personalist dictatorships. While the foreign companies arrived during the dictatorship (1908–1935) of Juan Vicente Gómez, the consequent social changes made the caudillo system obsolete.
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  29. Ewell, Judith. Venezuela and the United States: From Monroe’s Hemisphere to Petroleum’s Empire. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1996.
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  31. Provides the most complete English-language account of relations between the United States and Venezuela from independence to the 1980s. Ewell’s premise—that Venezuelan-US relations became more complex because Latin America’s relations with the rest of the world were becoming more diversified—helps us put the policies of Chávez and his antipathy toward the United States in historical perspective.
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  33. Hellinger, Daniel. Venezuela: Tarnished Democracy. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1991.
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  35. A general introduction to the nation’s history, economy, and politics up to the caracazo uprising of 1989, before the attempted coups of 1992 indicated discontent in military ranks and the full depth of the crisis. Argues that Venezuela was less democratic than usually assumed but also counters claims by critics who dismissed Venezuelan democracy as a mere façade.
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  37. Lombardi, John. The Search for Order, the Dream of Progress. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
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  39. A general history by the highly respected dean of North American historians on Venezuela. As the title implies, Lombardi maintains that although Venezuelan history has been marked by a strong tendency toward caudilloism, so too has Venezuelan political culture been marked by positivism, even under the harsh dictatorships.
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  41. Skidmore, Thomas E., Peter H. Smith, and James N. Green. Modern Latin America. 7th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
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  43. Chapter 8 (pp. 219–243) of this widely used text of Latin America is devoted to Venezuela and provides the best brief historical overview.
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  45. Sosa Abascal, Arturo, and Eloi Lengrand. Del Garibaldismo estudiantil a la izquierda criolla: Los orígenes Marxistas del proyecto de A.D. (1928–1935). Caracas: Ediciones Cantauro, 1981.
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  47. Seminal study of the “Generation of 1928,” which stemmed from a university protest. Rómulo Betancourt, then a student, subsequently laid the foundations for the Punto Fijo era by tying the demand for electoral democracy to economic development and anti-imperialism: i.e., demanding a great share of oil company profits.
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  49. The Chávez Era
  50.  
  51. These works are chosen because they offer general overviews of the Bolivarian Revolution since the December 1998 election. Ellner and Hellinger 2003, Ellner and Tinker Salas 2007 (see also Smilde and Hellinger 2011, cited under Social Movements) and ¿Para dónde va Venezuela? are edited volumes consisting of academic analyses of various aspects of this period; some of the contributions have their own entries under appropriate headings in this bibliography. For a general readership and for undergraduates, the ReVista 2008 special issue and Ponniah and Eastwood 2011 are accessible and balanced. Goumbri 2005 is a very accessible compilation of articles favorable to the Bolivarian record. Wilpert 2007 and Bruce 2008 are also accessible and generally favorable to Chavismo, but both include criticism from a leftist perspective. Coronel 2006 is harshly critical and representative of the intransigent opposition’s view of the Chávez era; Márquez and Piñango 2003 would be a better choice for those seeking an opposition perspective with a less polemical tone.
  52.  
  53. Bruce, Ian. The Real Venezuela: Making Socialism in the 21st Century. London: Pluto, 2008.
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  55. A veteran reporter sympathetic to the Bolivarian project takes a look at the way it is actually unfolding on the ground. His keen observations are based upon a return visit in 2008 to check on the status of the project several years after having covered Venezuela for the BBC. Valuable for weighing the positive and negative sides of the Venezuelan experience under Chávez and accessible to those new to studying Venezuela.
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  57. Coronel, Gustavo. Corruption, Mismanagement, and Abuse of Power in Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela. Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2006.
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  59. Condemnation of the regime by a former executive of the state oil company. Highly polemical, representative of the views of the most intransigent opponents of Chávez.
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  61. Ellner, Steve, and Daniel Hellinger, eds. Venezuelan Politics in the Chávez Era: Class Polarization and Conflict. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2003.
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  63. Twelve contributions that challenge the notion that oil had made Venezuela’s politics unique and harmonious relative to the rest of region. Historian John Lombardi’s foreword states: “The detailed analyses in this volume offer an early assessment of the fundamental nature of the changes brought by the Chávez phenomenon, and serve as an essential base of understanding the transformations to come” (p. 6).
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  65. Ellner, Steve, and Miguel Tinker Salas, eds. Venezuela: Hugo Chávez and the Decline of an “Exceptional Democracy.” Latham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.
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  67. Collection of essays republished from two issues of Latin American Perspectives dedicated to examination of Chavismo. Generally sympathetic but still critical in reflecting on the relationship between aspirations and reality. Includes articles on US democracy promotion, electoral polarization, urban social movements, labor, ethnicity, among other topics.
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  69. Goumbri, Olivia Burlingame, ed. The Venezuela Reader: The Building of a People’s Democracy. Washington, DC: Epica, 2005.
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  71. Positive portrayal of the Chávez record and various movements in Venezuela, explicitly aimed at countering the largely negative image in the international media.
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  73. Marquéz, Patricia, and Ramón Piñango, eds. En Esta Venezuela: Realidades y nuevos caminos. Caracas: Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA), 2003.
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  75. A collection of articles published by the most prestigious school of administration and management. Contributions from academics who avoid the extreme rhetoric of the opposition but are generally aligned against Chavismo.
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  77. Ponniah, Thomas, and Jonathan Eastwood, eds. The Revolution in Venezuela: Social and Political Change under Chávez. Cambridge, MA: David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University, 2011.
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  79. Diverse topics and perspectives on the degree to which social and political change in Venezuela merit the label “revolution.” Eastwood’s opening essay neatly sums up three tensions in the process between (1) the oil economy and the goals of development and reduction of inequality and poverty, (2) participation and clientelism, and (3) “participatory democracy and authoritarian centralism.”
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  81. Special Issue: ¿Para dónde va Venezuela? Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales 9.3 (September–December 2003).
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  83. Written just as the Bolivarian social missions were under way after the attempted coup and oil work stoppage, but before the recall referendum of 2004—the peak era of polarization. This collection covers a wide variety of themes, including economic policy, tendencies in the labor movement, military doctrine, police, media, and ambiguous decentralization policies.
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  85. Special Issue: Venezuela, the Chávez Effect. ReVista: The Harvard Review of Latin America 3.1 (Fall 2008).
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  87. A series of essays by Venezuela experts, aimed at a broader public, covering economic, social, and political themes. Very balanced in assessing the state of the Bolivarian Revolution at a time when major programs were beginning to show results (positive and negative) before the economic recession and indications of some disappointment in the Chavista base. Excellent classroom resource.
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  89. Wilpert, Gregory. Changing Venezuela by Taking Power: The History and Policies of the Chávez Government. London: Verso, 2007.
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  91. A direct response to the Mexican Zapatista call to “change the world without taking power,” widely debated in leftist circles. Wilpert argues that the Chávez government cannot renounce taking power given the characteristics of the petro-state, however, the author also argues that the Bolivarian Revolution has been shaped by social movements advocating horizontal, participatory forms of governance.
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  93. The Crisis of the Old Regime
  94.  
  95. The military and political career of Hugo Chávez roughly parallels the erosion of the stability of the political system known as puntofijismo. Puntofijismo came about after more than two decades of agitation for full electoral democracy by Rómulo Betancourt and his AD party. Alexander 1982, Betancourt 1978, and Sosa Abascal and Lengrand 1981 (all cited under Venezuelan History and Politics) provide historical background that shows the origins of Punto Fijo as a project first outlined by Betancourt, linking democratization to oil and modernization. In 1958 the military dictatorship (1948–1958) of General Marcos Pérez Jiménez fell and was replaced by the first democratic constitutional system under which regular transitions of government occurred via election. The foundations for the democratic transition were laid by several pacts among business, labor union, military, church, and political leaders, preceding the December 1958 election. The most important of these was a power-sharing agreement among leaders of the major non-Communist parties signed at a Caracas villa, “Punto Fijo,” owned by Rafael Caldera, founder and leader of the Social Christian COPEI party. This pact contributed to the new system surviving the 1960s leftist insurgency and attempted military coups. It matured to a system dominated by AD and COPEI in the 1970s, a period that saw the OPEC oil boom and prosperity. Just as Chávez was coming of age as a young lieutenant in the early 1980s, Venezuela entered a period of steep economic decline at the end of the OPEC oil bonanza. Ten years of economic decline and deteriorating living conditions, not to mention daily headlines about corruption, took their toll on the legitimacy on Venezuela’s “pacted democracy,” producing popular sympathy in 1992 for a coup attempt by Chávez and the Movimiento Bolivariano Revolucionaria (MBR), and eventually carrying Chávez to power via election in 1998. The Punto Fijo era continues to be derided by Chávez and celebrated by his opposition. The Punto Fijo System and Popular Pressure and Institutional Reform both highlight works dealing with the functioning and the deterioration of the legitimacy of puntofijismo, but the former looks more closely at institutional features, especially the two-party system and elite interaction, while the latter looks more closely at the causes of deterioration of mass confidence. Neoliberalism and Economic Decline examines the impact of the economic crisis and issues surrounding the neoliberal policies that induced discontent and mobilization.
  96.  
  97. The Punto Fijo System
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  99. The works here examine the political consequences, positive and negative, of the elite pact of 1958 that laid the basis for a forty-year regime in which the AD party shared hegemony with COPEI, its Christian Democratic rival. Karl 1986 and Rey 1972 were among the first to diagnose the democratic deficit embodied in the Pact of Punto Fijo, an analysis that Rey 1998 brings up to date. Friedman 2000 argues that the 1958 transition was “gendered”: that is, it failed to accord women influence commensurate with their role in resisting the dictatorship. Coppedge 1994 and Crisp 2000 analyze the functioning of the system in its mature stage, describing a system of tightly disciplined parties, both organized along lines of democratic centralism, controlled by a small group of powerful politicians (or cogollos) increasingly distant from their mass base. Levine 2002 analyzes the failure of elites to respond effectively to the eroding consensus and need for reform. Lalander 2004 takes this argument to the point of arguing that institutional reform, rather than not going far enough, actually weakened the system. Salamanca 1997 argues that the Punto Fijo era was in the end a failed experiment with modernization, attributing a resurgence of populism to the oil-nurtured political culture.
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  101. Coppedge, Michael. Strong Parties and Lame Ducks: Presidential Partyarchy and Factionalism in Venezuela. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994.
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  103. Argues that political parties in Venezuela evolved from programmatic institutions to vehicles for factional infighting. Much of the factionalism revolves around the constant struggle to nominate the candidate for the next presidential election, a consequence of the incumbent being ineligible for reelection and the concentration of executive power.
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  105. Crisp, Brian F. Democratic Institutional Design: The Powers and Incentive of Venezuelan Politicians and Interest Groups. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000.
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  107. An institutionalist analysis of the Punto Fijo regime and the way that the 1961 constitution encouraged highly centralized rule and eviscerated legislative debate. Also examines how the system weakened presidential authority because of the no-reelection rule. An afterword on the 1999 constitution offers a generally positive comparison to the 1961 document, but the author appropriately keeps in mind that design and results are not necessarily the same.
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  109. Friedman, Elisabeth J. Unfinished Transitions: Women and the Gendered Development of Democracy in Venezuela. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000.
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  111. Women were deeply involved in resistance to the dictatorship that preceded the transition to Venezuela’s “pacted” democracy of 1958 to 1998, but they had to struggle throughout the Punto Fijo era for inclusion and rights. An important study of a neglected topic: the way “pacted” democratic transitions limit women’s rights and aspirations.
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  113. Karl, Terry Lynn. “Petroleum and Political Pacts: the Transition to Democracy in Venezuela.” In Transitions from Authoritarian Rule. Edited by Guillermo O’Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead, 196–219. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.
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  115. An early dissent from the tendency to view the Pact of Punto Fijo as a model for democratic transitions based on elites negotiating post-transition rules of the game. Karl’s analysis highlighted democratic liabilities in “the construction of democracy by antidemocratic means” and warned that democratic stability was vulnerable to the disappearance of oil income.
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  117. Lalander, Rickard O. Suicide of the Elephants: Venezuela Decentralization between Partyarchy and Chavismo. Helsinki: Renvall Institute, 2004.
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  119. An institutional analysis of the collapse of the Punto Fijo system, somewhat at odds with studies placing emphasis upon economic and social polarization. All parties, including Chávez’s MVR, sought to attract votes by promising decentralization. The established parties accepted decentralization just enough to “commit suicide.” They were not “killed” by Chávez but by their own hand.
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  121. Levine, Daniel. “The Decline and Fall of Democracy in Venezuela: Ten Theses.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 21.2 (2002): 248–269.
  122. DOI: 10.1111/1470-9856.00042Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  123. A political scientist blames the erosion of consensus, especially among elites, for the collapse of the Punto Fijo regime and despairs about the direction Venezuela is headed under Chávez.
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  125. Rey, Juan Carlos. “El sistema de partidos venezolanos.” Revista Politeía 1 (1972): 175–230.
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  127. The seminal article that influenced a subsequent generation of political scientists inside and outside Venezuela. Rey was the first to describe Venezuelan democracy as a populist system for reconciling elite conflict, based on the Pact of Punto Fijo.
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  129. Rey, Juan Carlos. El futuro de la democracia en Venezuela. Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, 1998.
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  131. Venezuela’s foremost political scientist of the Punto Fijo era offers a pessimistic analysis of Venezuelan democracy. Rey rejects the populism of the past but also attributes the hostility of elites toward populism as stemming from their unwillingness to submit to the electoral will of the people. He rejects corporatist representation and advocates experimentation with participatory institutions and systems of representation.
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  133. Salamanca, Luis. Crisis de la modernización y crisis de la democracia en Venezuela. Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, 1997.
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  135. Salamanca sees a crisis of “distributive modernization.” Oil rents were used by modernizing elites to unleash a process of social mobilization that has been stalled by declining rents, leading to what the author considers a crisis best understood within the framework provided by Huntington: the combination of declining institutionalization and rising demands generated by social mobilization.
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  137. Popular Pressure and Institutional Reform
  138.  
  139. A casual observer might think that Chávez brought forth a popular movement through his charismatic leadership. However, works here represent a more general consensus among country specialists that popular mobilization preceded Chávez and cannot be simply attributed to his leadership. López Maya 2005 is a fundamental source on the explosion of social protest that began with an urban rebellion, known as the caracazo, of 1989, culmination of a crisis that can be traced to the devaluation of the bolívar against the dollar on a day in 1983, known as “Black Friday” (hence the title of the book). Velasco 2010 contends that urban protest had been going on in many barrios at an even earlier date, supporting this with his study of the massive Caracas barrio of 23 enero. Buxton 2001 stands out for its examination of electoral corruption, usually overlooked in studies of the decline of puntofijismo; Myers and McCoy 2003 and McCoy and Myers 2004 are collections of articles that, taken as a whole, link institutional failure to deterioration of social conditions and popular unrest. Hillman 1994 offers a similar analysis in a volume more accessible for a general readership. McCoy, et al. 1995 is more narrowly focused on the need to reform the corporatist nature of the system, arguing that popular resistance made it difficult for the adjustment to be fully implemented.
  140.  
  141. Buxton, Julia. The Failure of Political Reform in Venezuela. Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2001.
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  143. After the Caracazo rebellion of 1989, political elites enacted some decentralization but failed to act on other reforms aimed at weakening the grip of the disciplined, hierarchical parties that dominated the Punto Fijo era. Buxton’s book stands alone for documenting and analyzing electoral corruption, a topic often regarded as a marginal phenomenon. Buxton shows it was not.
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  145. Hillman, Richard S. Democracy for the Privileged: Crisis and Transition in Venezuela. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1994.
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  147. Casts doubt that democracy had been consolidated thirty-five years after the transition from dictatorship in 1958. Argues that the political system in late Punto Fijo was over-centralized, elitist, and a clientelist hybrid. These characteristics are due not simply to dependence on oil but to a “deeply ingrained culture of protest and endemic violence, and the brevity of the democratic experiment” (p. xiii).
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  149. López Maya, Margarita. Del viernes negro al referendo revocatorio. Caracas: Afadil, 2005.
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  151. A collection of articles by a leading Venezuelan political sociologist, covering the period between the devaluation of the bolivar in 1983 and Chávez’s victory in the 2004 recall referendum. López Maya argues that the poor majority of Venezuelans demanded and achieved political, social, and economic inclusion by backing Chávez’s rise; they provided crucial support through the difficult years of 2002–2004.
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  153. McCoy, Jennifer L., and David J. Myers, eds. The Unraveling of Representative Democracy in Venezuela. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.
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  155. Especially useful are several chapters that examine the electoral behavior and attitudes of the social classes, especially the urban poor. Overall, the contributors see Chavismo as a deterioration of pluralist and liberal institutions, but they acknowledge that both the new regime and the old one reside in a kind of “grey zone” between fully institutionalized polyarchy and autocracy.
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  157. McCoy, Jennifer, Andrés Servin, William C. Smith, and Andrés Stambouli, eds. Venezuelan Democracy under Stress. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1995.
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  159. Chapters written by Venezuelan and North American scholars for a conference in November 1992, just after the Chávez coup. The editors conclude that the crisis was one of governability, created by ossified corporatism and the difficulty of moving from the state-centric economy of the petro-state toward a market-based economy.
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  161. Myers, David, and Jennifer McCoy. “Venezuela in the Grey Zone: From Feckless Pluralism to Dominant Power System.” Revista Politeia 30 (2003): 41–74.
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  163. Two crises, one of legitimacy and the other one of distribution, mutually reinforced the Punto Fijo system’s decline. The discrediting of political elites creates a situation where a “grey zone” exists between democracy and a system based on charismatic authority.
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  165. Velasco, Alejandro. “‘A Weapon as Powerful as the Vote’: Urban Protest and Electoral Politics in Venezuela, 1978–1983.” Hispanic American Historical Review 90 (4 November 2010): 661–695.
  166. DOI: 10.1215/00182168-2010-045Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  167. Although this revisionist study takes up a period well before the advent of Chávez, it explicitly links urban movements and struggles in the current era to those of the past, asserting continuity. The methodology combines anthropological research with historiography.
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  169. Neoliberalism and Economic Decline
  170.  
  171. The works cited here focus less on the institutional issues of reform than on the impact of the collapse of oil prices in the 1980s and the neoliberal economic policies pursued after 1989. Freije 2008 and Gallo 2004 recognize that for various reasons Venezuela never fully embraced programs of privatization and fiscal austerity to the extent elsewhere in the region, but they nonetheless argue that neoliberal policies contributed to increased inequality and poverty. Sylvia and Danopoulous 2003 covers much the same ground with more commentary on the political consequences: specifically, the resurgence of populism. Lander 1995 comes to the same conclusion but widens his lens to argue that these tendencies in Venezuela were consistent regional trends. Romero 1987 argues quite the opposite of these authors, claiming that populist politics obstructed needed, market-oriented reforms. Rodríguez 2007 walks a line between Romero and the others: these essays provide a useful history of economic policymaking from 1989 (when the first earnest attempts to implement neoliberal policies were initiated) to 2006, which was well into Chávez’s term. Rodríguez Rojas 2009 has a narrower focus (on agricultural policy) but covers a longer period of time.
  172.  
  173. Freije, Samuel. “Distribución y redistribución del ingreso en Venezuela.” América Latina Hoy: Revista de Ciencias Sociales 48 (April 2008): 83–107.
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  175. Income became much more unequally distributed between 1980 and 2000, largely due to a decline in accumulation of capital. This had little to do with government policies or inequality at the start of the period. Reductions in poverty after 2000 were due to redistribution of national income, not to restoring the productivity growth or returns to labor, argues Freije.
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  177. Gallo, César R. Reformas económicas y desigualdad: El caso venezolano durante el período 1989–1997. Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, 2004.
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  179. Based on considerable empirical data, this is a look at how economic policy influenced the growth of inequality—especially the growth of the informal sector. As the latter has been the most resilient base of support for Chávez, this book occupies an important niche in the story of his rise to power.
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  181. Lander, Edgardo. Neoliberalismo, sociedad civil y democracia: Ensayos sobre América Latina y Venezuela. Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, 1995.
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  183. Against works such as Salamanca 1997 (cited under the Punto Fijo System) that interpret the political crisis of the 1990s as stemming from tensions generated by modernization, Lander attributes the crisis to structural adjustment and neoliberal economic policies. The rise of movements and the awakening of civil society were a response, according to Lander, who compares the path of Venezuela to counterparts in the region.
  184. Find this resource:
  185. Rodríguez, Cristina. Momentos de la economía venezolana. Caracas: Banco Nacional de Crédito, 2007.
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  187. Compilation of thirty-six analytical essays written between 1989 and 2006 by an analyst for MetroEconómica, a Caracas-based consulting firm. The author mostly takes an institutionalist perspective, neither statist nor free-market oriented. Presented chronologically, the articles chronicle the zigs and zags of Venezuelan policy during the declining years of the Punto Fijo era and the early years of the new regime.
  188. Find this resource:
  189. Rodríguez Rojas, José. Lecciones de economía venezolana: Factores de producción y desarrollo tecnológico de la agricultura venezolana, 1945–2000. Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, Consejo de Desarrollo, 2009.
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  191. A synthesis of micro- and macro-economic studies by the agronomy department of the Central University. State policies from the 1940s until the 1980s, despite lower capital costs, promoted extensive growth (i.e., expanding land in production but not yields, relying increasingly on cheap labor). Provides context for conflicts today over land reform and domestic food shortages.
  192. Find this resource:
  193. Romero, Aníbal. La miseria del populismo: Mitos y realidades de la democracia en Venezuela. Caracas: Ediciones Centauro, 1987.
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  195. A book by a distinguished Venezuelan political scientist arguing that populism created a false sense of prosperity. Generally representative of the neoliberal critique of the Punto Fijo regime. Whereas most of the literature here views the neoliberal economic reforms as having undermined Punto Fijo, Romero warned that the entrenched parties were not prepared to go far enough.
  196. Find this resource:
  197. Sylvia, Ronald D., and Constantine P. Danopoulos. “The Chávez Phenomenon: Political Change in Venezuela.” Third World Quarterly 24.1 (2003): 63–76.
  198. DOI: 10.1080/713701367Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  199. Conventional account of the rise of Chávez as a result of impoverishment and erosion of political legitimacy of the old regime and some analysis of the polarization leading to the 2002 coup. Chiefly valuable as a readable, short introduction to Chavismo.
  200. Find this resource:
  201. Biographical and Testimonial Works
  202.  
  203. On 14 February 1992, a young lieutenant colonel, Hugo Chávez Frías, led a coup that nearly toppled the elected president, Carlos Andrés Pérez. The politicians of both major political parties called on the public to defend “democracy,” but they were shocked when instead the streets filled with young people wearing red berets in the style of Chávez’s paratrooper unit. Inside and outside of Venezuela, first reports aroused fears that we might be witnessing a coup of the type that brought harsh dictatorships to Brazil and the Southern Cone twenty years earlier. However, something quite different was in the offing. Chávez’s Movimento Bolivariana Revolucionaria (MBR) was created when Chávez and some of his compatriots swore an oath under the Tree of Salmán, where 170 years earlier Simón Bolívar had sworn to free Venezuela from Spain. They were convinced that a present-day oligarchy was just as perfidious as that which thwarted the liberator’s dreams. The officers were certainly gravitating toward the left, but at this time they were more nationalist than anything else. After the failed coup, Chávez spent a short time in jail; there followed four years building the movement that would carry him to the presidency in the elections of December 1998. During this time journalists began to interview him and his associates and to gather documents relevant to the MBR’s founding and evolution. Much of this material can be found in the works in this section. Biography and Commentary on Chávez focuses on sources that illuminate, although with some considerable disagreement, the evolution of the Bolivarian leader’s political career from childhood, through his military career, and then as a politician. Testimony and Interviews collects firsthand accounts by Chávez and other important actors in the seminal events from the MBR’s founding to the Bolivarian leader’s proclamation of his commitment to “21st-century socialism” in 2005. Some of the actors remain allies today, but others offer the perspective of those who have broken ranks with Chávez.
  204.  
  205. Biography and Commentary on Chávez
  206.  
  207. These works range from harshly negative accounts given in Corrales 2006 and also Corrales and Penfold 2011, to the hagiographic story told in Gott 2005. In between are Marcano and Tyszka 2007 and Kozloff 2006. Bart Jones is sympathetic to his subject in his deeply thoughtful and extended biography (Jones 2009). More than any of the others Jones illuminates the social context of Chávez’s rise. He delves deeper into the internal politics of the military leading up to the failed coup of 1992.
  208.  
  209. Corrales, Javier. “Hugo Boss.” Foreign Policy 152 (January 2006): 32–40.
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  211. Written for a general audience as a cover story for the respected public journal Foreign Policy, Corrales says that Chávez is practicing a new kind of tyranny, finding ways to amass power even as opposition grows.
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  213. Corrales, Javier, and Michael Penfold. Dragon in the Tropics: Hugo Chávez and the Political Economy of Revolution in Venezuela. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2011.
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  215. The authors maintain that Chávez has deliberately fomented extremism, polarization, and confrontation. The tone is polemical at times; but the authors provide valuable discussion of alternative paths and possibilities for a moderate opposition to emerge.
  216. Find this resource:
  217. Gott, Richard. Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution. New York: Verso, 2005.
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  219. Highly sympathetic to its subject but also useful as an exposition of Chávez’s ideological formation. Gott is a journalist with the Guardian (London) who has extensive experience in Venezuela.
  220. Find this resource:
  221. Jones, Bart. HUGO! The Hugo Chávez Story from Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution. Hanover, NH: Steerforth, 2009.
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  223. Sympathetic but not uncritical account of Chávez, based on extensive research by a journalist with significant experience in Venezuela. Especially valuable in tracing the evolution of, and motives for, the conspiracy behind the failed coup of 1992. Jones retraces some of the research in Marcano and Tyszka 2007 and revises some of their accounts and conclusions.
  224. Find this resource:
  225. Kozloff, Nicholas. Hugo Chávez: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge to the U.S. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
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  227. Biographical, but more focused on the relationship between Chávez and Washington and with other states in Latin America than on internal Venezuelan politics. Frames Chávez more as a nationalist than a revolutionary.
  228. Find this resource:
  229. Marcano, Cristina, and Alberto Barrero Tyszka. Hugo Chávez: The Definitive Biography of Venezuela’s Controversial President. New York: Random House, 2007.
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  231. Not really “definitive” (see Jones 2009), but this was the first serious biographical work. By two journalists and originally published in Spanish, this biography is more unsympathetic to its subject than others, but is it not vituperative. Like Jones, the authors conducted many interviews with key associates of Chávez from his early years in the military, the years of prison, and the campaign for the presidency.
  232. Find this resource:
  233. Testimonial Accounts and Interviews
  234.  
  235. Venezuelan elites and politicians have long put accounts of their role in important events into books for posterity, and so it is with the formation of the Bolivarian movement in the military, the two coups that nearly toppled the Punto Fijo system in 1992, the subsequent rise of Chávez, his presidential campaign, and the short-lived coup that ousted Chavez in April 2002. Chávez himself speaks through interviews in Harnecker 2005 and also in Blanco Muñoz 1998. Elizalde and Báez 2004, Garrido 1999, Garrido 2000, and Zago 1992 offer inside accounts of politics in the ranks and of the influence of former guerrillas, among other things. (Marín 2006, cited under the Military, interviews military officers who reversed the coup of 2002, including the hero, General Isaías Baduel, who later joined the opposition.) Medina 1999 and Ojeda 2001 were allies who became disgruntled with Chávez and offer an unflattering view of his leadership.
  236.  
  237. Blanco Muñoz, Augustín. Habla El Comandante Hugo Chávez Frías. Caracas: Fundación Pio Tamayo, 1998.
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  239. Interviews conducted between 1995 and 1998. While Muñoz is clearly sympathetic to his subject, the questions probe deeply into the history of the MBR and the influence an old guerrilla left upon its ideology. Like many other of the works included in this section, it also offers a glimpse of politics within the ranks in the years leading to the 1992 coup attempt.
  240. Find this resource:
  241. Chávez Frías, Hugo. El golpe fascista contra Venezuela. Havana, Cuba: Ediciones Plaza, 2003.
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  243. Mostly a collection of speeches given at a moment of high tension (December 2002 and January 2003), just months after the April coup, and just as the oil work stoppage was beginning. It can be seen as a good measure of how Chávez himself conceived the Bolivarian movement at a time when he was trying to consolidate power in the face of fierce opposition but also before he had defined Bolivarianism as “socialist.”
  244. Find this resource:
  245. Elizalde, Rosa Miriam, and Luis Báez. Chávez Nuestro. Havana, Cuba: Casa Editorial Abril, 2004.
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  247. Interviews with many key individuals from Chávez’s personal life, military career, and political career, including one with Chávez himself. Not all of these individuals remained aligned with Chávez, including, for example, Raúl Isaías Baduel, whose command played a key role in thwarting the 2002 coup against Chávez, but who later moved into opposition.
  248. Find this resource:
  249. Garrido, Alberto. Guerrilla y conspiración militar en Venezuela. Caracas: Fondo Editorial Nacional, 1999.
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  251. Interviews former guerrillas and a key military ally of Hugo Chávez who was involved in a second coup attempt in 1992; supplemented with numerous documents that give insights into the orientation of Chávez and his co-conspirators. Sheds light on how the conspirators of 1992 were influenced by survivors of the ill-fated leftist insurgency of the 1960s.
  252. Find this resource:
  253. Garrido, Alberto. La historia secreta de la revolución Bolivariana. Merida, Venezuela: Editorial Venezolana, 2000.
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  255. These interviews shed light on the formation of the Movimiento Revolucionaria Bolivariana (MBR). Facts in the accounts are often disputed, but in the absence of professional historiography on the movement, these testimonials and the biographies of Chávez provide some approximation of how a conspiracy formed within a military that virtually all observers thought loyal to the old regime.
  256. Find this resource:
  257. Harnecker, Marta. Understanding the Venezuelan Revolution: Hugo Chávez Talks to Marta Harnecker. New York: Monthly Review, 2005.
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  259. A series of interviews conducted by the Chilean Marxist journalist not long before Chávez proclaimed his commitment to “21st-century socialism,” and therefore a useful benchmark in the evolution of Chávez’s ideology. Eight interviews cover topics such as the role of the army in making social change, thoughts on party building, and relations with the middle class.
  260. Find this resource:
  261. Medina, Pablo. Rebeliones. Caracas: P. Medina, 1999.
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  263. From at least 1986, former guerrilla Medina collaborated with Chávez and was responsible for organizing the civilian side of the failed coup of February 1992. He bitterly broke with Chávez after 1998. He was well placed to provide insights into the development of the conspiracy within the ranks of the military and its relationship to the left.
  264. Find this resource:
  265. Ojeda, William. La “V” por dentro: Caras nuevas, vicios viejos. Caracas: Solar Ediciones, 2001.
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  267. Testimonial book in which a former member of the Movimiento Venezolana Revolucionaria (MVR), Chávez’s party of that period, complains that the new party was assuming characteristics of the Punto Fijo parties. No doubt this was sour grapes by a jilted politician, but the critique was at least partly validated when Chávez himself dissolved the MVR in 2008.
  268. Find this resource:
  269. Zago, Angela. La Rebelión de los Angeles. Caracas: WARP Ediciones, 1992.
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  271. Published immediately after the failed February coup, this is mainly a collection of letters, documents, and pronouncements by key actors in the 1992 rebellion, a valuable repository of primary source material, on their attempts to justify the coup against the elected president, Carlos Andrés Pérez.
  272. Find this resource:
  273. Bolivarian Ideology
  274.  
  275. To be sure, Hugo Chávez has the first and last word in defining the ideology associated with Bolivarianism. We can safely describe it as “radical nationalist” in its first two decades, but from 2005 Chávez has insisted that it is also socialist. This distinguishes Bolivarian ideas from the ideology of the leader to which he is frequently compared: Argentina’s Juan Perón. Although Chávez is the key articulator of these ideas, his politics did not emerge in a vacuum. The Bolivarian leader is a voracious reader. We have selected for citation here the most influential Venezuelan and international works. But not included here, for example, are works such as Uruguayan author Edward Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America and books by Noam Chomsky, which Chávez likes to give as gifts. Precursors and Influences gathers work from the era of Bolívar and 20th-century Venezuelan leftists who are relatively unknown, but whose ideas have been brought to Bolivarianism by several current and former allies of Chávez. Bolívar and Venezuelan Nationalism examines historiography on the character of Venezuelan nationalism, including recent historical works that attempt to put Chávez in context (usually negatively). Bolivarianism and Socialist Theory cites some key sources offering analysis and often advice on how to implement 21st-century socialism in Venezuela.
  276.  
  277. Precursors and Influences
  278.  
  279. Ceresole 1999 is a work by a right-wing but extremely nationalistic Argentine sociologist who influenced Chávez’s thinking on resistance of American unilateralism and the importance of uniting military and civilian sectors behind a nationalist political project. Maneiro 1986 only met Chávez once, but his analysis and critique of the left, very much in the Gramscian tradition, influenced the political thinking of some members of Chávez’s inner circle, especially outside his military circle. Among the latter is the author of Rodríguez Araque 1988: Rodriguez occupied key positions in the oil and energy sectors as well as several important diplomatic posts. De la Plaza 1973 and Mattié and Melcher 1996 illuminate the influence of an underappreciated strain of nationalist thought about oil, one that would greatly influence Bolivarian ideology and policy.
  280.  
  281. Ceresole, Norberto. Caudillo, Ejercito, Pueblo: La Venezuela del Comandante Chávez. 1999.
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  283. Ceresole, a radical right-wing Peronist, had significant influence over Chávez in two respects: his advocacy of military populism and his call for resistance to US hegemony and unilateralism. A breach opened between Chávez and Ceresole, rooted in the latter’s anti-Semitism and anti-Communism—the latter not compatible with Chávez’s growing friendship with Fidel Castro.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. De la Plaza, Salvador, and Jacques Duclos. Antecedentes del Revisionismo en Venezuela. Caracas: Fondo Editorial Salvador de la Plaza, 1973.
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  287. Fundamentally of interest for the four essays by De la Plaza, a dissident Communist whose writings were studied by a circle of leftists that included Chávez’s brother. See Matté and Melcher 1996.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Maneiro, Alfredo. Notas Políticas. Caracas: Ediciones del Agua Mansa, 1986.
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  291. Former guerrilla commander articulated the need for the Venezuela left to concentrate less on capturing the state and more on influencing civil society. Before his untimely death in 1982 Maneiro met Chávez only once, but he influenced members of the early Causa R political party who would migrate to the small Patria Para Todos (PPT) party, several becoming key Chávez cabinet members.
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Mattié, Mailer, and Dorothea Melcher, eds. Salvador de la Plaza: Petróleo y soveranía nacional. 2 vols. Mérida, Venezuela: Universidad de los Andes, 1996.
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  295. De la Plaza was an independent Communist, never comfortable in any one sector of the left. His writings on oil between 1920 and 1970, mostly in newspaper columns, were largely forgotten except by a small circle of intellectuals who would eventually shape the nationalist oil policies of the Chávez administration. These volumes outline his life and key ideas.
  296. Find this resource:
  297. Rodríguez Araque, Alí. Servir al Pueblo. Caracas, 1988.
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  299. A former guerrilla and member of a small leftist party that supported Chávez in 1998 outlines his philosophy, including a call for a nationalist oil policy. Rodríguez would serve as a top advisor and minister in several cabinet positions. In 2002–2003 he headed the state oil company during the work stoppage that paralyzed it for three months.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Bolívar and Venezuelan Nationalism
  302.  
  303. The best introduction to Bolívar’s life is Lynch 2006; Eastwood 2006 complements Lynch nicely by outlining the conception of nationalism of the Creole elite, who ultimately thwarted Bolívar’s post-independence plans. Carrera Damas 2008 explains how the historical memory of Bolívar was used by a later generation of elites to promote a project of building national identity. Conway 2003 builds on Carrera Damas to provide a balanced assessment of how Bolívar’s thought is understood today in Latin America, with measured and balanced assessments regarding Chávez’s own interpretation of the liberator. Of course, Chávez has immersed himself in the writings of Bolívar, the most important of which can be found in the collection Bolívar 2003. Students of Bolivarian ideology may also want to consult Biographical and Testimonial Works and Popular Analysis and Debates. Robinson 2004 focuses on the influence of Bolívar’s teacher on Chavista education theories. Unfortunately, no thorough investigation exists of the life and thought of Ezequiel Zamora, the third member of the triumvirate of historical heroes in Chavista lore. Ellner 2010, however, does look at the role of populist caudillos and their relationship to Venezuelan political culture.
  304.  
  305. Bolívar, Simón. El Libertador: Writings of Simón Bolívar. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
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  307. A good collection of key writings by the inspiration behind the “revolution” led by Chávez.
  308. Find this resource:
  309. Carrera Damas, Germán. El culto a Bolívar: Esbozo para un estudio de la historia de las ideas en Venezuela. Caracas: Grijalbo, 2008.
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  311. Classic study of how the memory of the historical Bolívar was fashioned by the ruling class into a mythology stripped of most of its revolutionary content but evocative of the possibility of Venezuela achieving national greatness. See Conway 2003 for an even-handed attempt to judge the continuities and discontinuities in Chávez’s use of historical memory.
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Conway, Christopher. The Cult of Bolívar in Latin America. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003.
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  315. The cult of Bolívar is not a new conception; Conway, however, demonstrates how Bolívar’s ideas are utilized by Latin American leaders in ways that may sometimes be manipulative but that also preserve hope for progress. His afterword applies this specifically to Chávez.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. Eastwood, Jonathan. The Rise of Nationalism in Venezuela. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006.
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  319. Eastwood argues that the Creole nationalism at the time of Bolívar was more “civic” and exclusionary, in contrast to Enlightenment ideals. This thesis might support Chávez’s contention that from 1830 onward Venezuelan elites failed to keep faith with the masses; but instead Eastwood argues that the historical legacy is a tendency toward authoritarian, personalist rulers such as Chávez, in his view.
  320. Find this resource:
  321. Ellner, Steve. Rethinking Venezuelan Politics: Class, Conflict, and the Chávez Phenomenon. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2010.
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  323. A concise masterwork of interpretative history by a prolific American academic and a longtime resident in Venezuela. Ellner argues that Chávez appeals to the popular memory of populist caudillos that typically arose in periods of high social tension. This is a tendency that Ellner judges without the negative prejudice of most other Venezuelanists.
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Lynch, John. Simón Bolívar: A Life. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.
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  327. An admiring but clear-eyed examination of the life of Bolívar, one that unearths few new facts but does incorporate current historical research. Lynch sees roots of “authoritarian populism” in the career of Bolívar, with Chávez being the latest example. One can question the straight-line theory of history and casual conclusion about Chávez, but there is no better English-language account of Bolívar’s life.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Robinson, Max. La Raíz Robinsoniana de la Revolución Bolivariana en Venezuela. Caracas: Carlos del Vecchio, Instituto Municipal de Publicaciones Alcaldía de Caracas, 2004.
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  331. “Robinson” was the pseudonym of Simón Rodríguez, Bolívar’s teacher and, along with Bolívar and the populist caudillo Ezequiel Zamora, one of the three historical figures cited most frequently by Chávez. The literacy campaign of the early years of the Chávez presidency was known as “Misión Robinson.” This book constitutes in effect an official interpretation of Rodríguez’s thought.
  332. Find this resource:
  333. Bolivarianism and Socialist Theory
  334.  
  335. A good deal of debate surrounds the question of prospects for socialism in Venezuela, much of it fostered by Chávez’s characterization of his goal as the attainment of “21st-century socialism,” first announced in his speech to the World Social Forum in Brazil (Chávez Frías 2005). Dieterich 2005, Holloway 2002, and Lebowitz 2005 are all written from a non-Venezuelan perspective and have all influenced debate about the character of socialism in the Chavista movement, with some feedback in the other direction as well (see, for example, Wilpert 2007, cited in the Chávez Era). Álvarez 2010 and Sanz 2002 offer hopeful Venezuelan commentary on the possibilities of nonhierarchical socialism. Guerra 2007, on the other hand, thinks the Cuban model is what is really being imported. El Troudi 2010 is from one of the few thinkers to attempt to account for the advantages and disadvantages that the oil export economy poses for a transition to socialism. Woods 2005 offers a Trotskyite critique, which is a predictable condemnation of the bureaucracy, but it is worth consulting regarding experiments with worker self-management after factory takeovers. For a great variety of Venezuelan perspectives and debate about socialism, the reader should consult Aporrea (see Popular Analysis and Debate).
  336.  
  337. Alvarez, Victor R. Del estado burocrático al estado comunal: La transición al socialismo de la revolución Bolivariana. Caracas: Centro Internacional Miranda, 2010.
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  339. The author is a leading exponent of worker democracy who was also at one time assigned the task of implementing his ideas in the heavy industrial zone of Ciudae Guayana. Calls for more participation and warns of the dangers of bureaucracy.
  340. Find this resource:
  341. Chávez Frías, Hugo. “Our Peoples’ South and North.” Speech given at the fifth World Social Forum, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 30 January 2005.
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  343. Chávez’s first public discourse claiming to have “21st-century socialism” as his goal.
  344. Find this resource:
  345. Dieterich, Heinz. Hugo Chávez y Socialismo de Siglo XXI. Havana, Cuba: Nuestra América, 2005.
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  347. Dieterich, a German-born Mexican intellectual, coined the term “21st-century socialism,” a notion embraced openly by Chávez in at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in the year this book was written. His writings include hotly debated ideas on valuation of labor in a socialism that includes economic mechanisms associated with markets. Venezuela is seen here as a promising laboratory for implementation of these ideas.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. El Troudi, Haiman. La política económica Bolivariana (PEB) y los dilemas de la transición socialista en Venezuela. Caracas: Monte Áviles Editores, 2010.
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  351. A pragmatic and heterodox analysis of the prospects for socialism by a sympathetic but uncompromising critic. El Troudi’s conclusion: a transition to participatory democracy is more desirable and possible than a transition to socialism in Venezuela. Oil dependency is treated as a source of cultural obstacles that must be overcome, less so its role in economic accumulation.
  352. Find this resource:
  353. Guerra, José. Refutación del socialism del siglo XXI. Caracas: Los libros de El Nacional, 2007.
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  355. A polemic arguing that “21st-century socialism,” an idea that Chávez took from the work of Heinz Dieterich, is nothing more than an effort to implant the Cuban model in Venezuela. Although too often degenerating into hyperbole, there is some thoughtful attention to problems in Dieterich’s notions of combining market principles with socialist ideals.
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Holloway, John. Change the World without Taking Power. London: Pluto, 2002.
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  359. Holloway does not mention Venezuela in this book, which is strongly influenced by the Zapatista movement in Mexico. In subsequent interviews the author has made clear that he thinks leftist leaders such as Chávez draw energy away from popular movements. Essentially an anarchist thinker, Holloway’s book has become the focus of debate in discussions about the character of leadership provided by Chávez. Raby 2006 (cited under Populism and Chavismo) and Wilpert 2007 (cited under the Chávez Era) directly debate his ideas.
  360. Find this resource:
  361. Lebowitz, Michael A. “Constructing Co-management in Venezuela: Contradictions along the Path.” 2005.
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  363. Lebowitz’s ideas are influential within sectors of the Bolivarian labor movement associated with worker participation (particularly co-management) and are a significant influence on Rodolfo Sanz, who experimented with co-management in the major industrial zone of the Bolívar state (see Sanz 2002).
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Sanz, Rodolfo. Economía Política Humanista. Los Teques, Venezuela: Critica Editorial, 2002.
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  367. Outlines the rationale for construction of a “social economy,” what came to be called the “endogenous development,” based on combining a growing sector of cooperative and solidarity-enhancing enterprises with those of the state and private sector.
  368. Find this resource:
  369. Woods, Alan. The Venezuelan Revolution: A Marxist Perspective. London: Walred, 2005.
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  371. The author is a prolific critic of the Venezuelan revolution from a Trotskyite perspective. While his arguments have attracted little attention in mainstream media or academia, they are influential with sectors of the Bolivarian labor movement that have occupied several factories in the traditional industrial zone west of Caracas.
  372. Find this resource:
  373. Human Rights, Law, and the Bolivarian Constitution
  374.  
  375. A starting point here should be the actual text of the Bolivarian Constitution, widely available online in several languages. Brewer-Carías 2011 sees the current regime as unconstitutional and undemocratic; Toro and Césa 2003 and Viciano Pastor and Martínez Dalmau 2001 articulate the other side. The latter source is particularly good on the underlying theories as debated in the Constituent Assembly of 1999. Casteñeda and del Mar Álvarez 2000 is a balanced account of how women’s issues were considered by the assembly. A relatively dispassionate assessment of the new charter can be found in the articles making up Cambios Institucionales recientes en Venezuela. Urdaneta 2003 is especially useful for assessing the fate of efforts at decentralization, a key reform issue for more than twenty years. Regarding human rights in the Chávez era, typical of many reports are PROVEA 1997 and Human Rights Watch 2011. Those interested in this theme should consult the many other online publications and reports provided by PROVEA and Human Rights Watch. Wilpert 2008 summarizes the objections raised by some who feel that Human Rights Watch is biased against the government. Sanjuan 2008 is by a scholar and human rights activist who views personal insecurity as a threat not only to human rights but also to the possibilities of participatory democracy as envisioned in the constitution.
  376.  
  377. Brewer-Carías, Allan. “La desconstitucionalización del Estado de Derecho en Venezuela: Del Estado Democrático y Social al Estado Comunal Socialista, sin reformar la Constitución.” In Venezuela: República democrática. Edited by Felix Otamendi Osorio and Tomás Straka, 645–673. Barquisimeto, Venezuela: Associación Civil Group Jirahara, 2011.
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  379. Article argues that Venezuela is no longer a state of law and that the socialist project is in violation of the constitution. Brewer-Carías was president of a frustrated reform commission in the late Punto Fijo era and was in the small minority of the 1999 Constituent Assembly that drafted the current constitution. He authored the proclamations suspending much of the constitution during the forty-eight-hour coup of April 2002.
  380. Find this resource:
  381. Castañeda, Nora, and María del Mar Álvarez. “Proceso Constituyente: Propuestas para la Constitución de la República de Venezuela desde la Mirada de las Mujeres.” Revista Venezolana de Estudies de la Mujer 5 (January–June 2000): 147–155.
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  383. A document stating the position of the most important women’s organizations on issues of greatest concern to them under consideration of the Constituent Assembly, which wrote the new constitution in 1999. Apart from the article cited above, this journal contains other primary resources and four other articles analyzing the treatment of gender issues in the new constitution.
  384. Find this resource:
  385. Human Rights Watch. Universal Periodic Review of Venezuela: Human Rights Watch’s Submission to the U.N. Human Rights Council. New York: Human Rights Watch, 2011.
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  387. The prestigious and respected human rights organization says that Chávez has compromised judicial independence and has “systematically undermined” freedom of expression and human rights monitors.
  388. Find this resource:
  389. PROVEA. Las estrategias de la impunidad: Nueve años de lucha por las justicia en El Amparo. Caracas: Editorial Jurídica Venezolana, 1997.
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  391. El Amparo refers to a human rights atrocity along the border with Colombia in 1988. The murder of fourteen fishermen by the army became a national scandal and a stain upon Venezuelan democracy. This book outlines the victims’ relatives’ tortuous search for justice. Expectations that the Chávez government would pursue the case more vigorously were only partially met.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. Sanjuan, Ana María. “La revolución bolivariana en riesgo, la democratización social en cuestión: La violencia social y a criminalidad en Venezuela entre 1998–2008.” Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales 4 (September–December 2008): 83–119.
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  395. An academic and human rights activist, Sanjuan regards crime and violence as the most serious threat to democracy. The author makes the point that it is difficult to implement participatory democracy in the context of fear.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Special Issue: Cambios institucionales recientes en Venezuela. Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales 9.1 (January–April 2003).
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  399. Covers the institutional changes of the new (1999) constitution. These changes include articles on electoral power (a separate constitutional branch of government), military control, foreign policy, decentralization and administrative modernization, and the relationships between mobilization, institutionalization, and legitimacy.
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Toro, Fernández, and Julio Césa. “Los problemas constitucionales de la institucionalización democrática en Venezuela: 1972–2002.” Revista Politeia 30 (2003): 209–265.
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  403. Despite the title, this is a relatively positive view of the new national charter. In the author’s view, the constitution of 1999 is superior to that of 1961 because it reflects the deepening democratic aspirations of the masses, dissolves authoritarian institutions of the past, and establishes innovative democratic institutions. Perhaps this view is too optimistic, but it is useful for understanding the underlying philosophy of the Bolivarian constitution.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Urdaneta, Maritza Avila. “Reforma del Estado y descentralización en el marco de la nueva Constitución Bolivariana.” Revista venezolana de ciencia política 24 (July–December 2003): 112–129.
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  407. Decentralization is mandated in the Bolivarian Constitution, but the states and municipalities did not administer assigned funds much differently than they had in the 1990s, according to this study. Completed years before Chávez launched the communal councils, but useful for understanding related issues of decentralization and frustration with state and local government.
  408. Find this resource:
  409. Viciano Pastor, Roberto, and Rubén Martínez Dalmau. Cambio político y proceso constituyente en Venezuela (1998–2000). Caracas: Vadell Hermanos, 2001.
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  411. Less successful in placing the constitutional constituent assembly in the context of the history of Punto Fijo (the task designated by cambio político in the title). But this is a very informative analysis of the institutional design, innovation, and politics of the constituent assembly of 1999 and resulting Bolivarian Constitution.
  412. Find this resource:
  413. Wilpert, Greg. Smoke and Mirrors: An Analysis of Human Rights Watch’s Report on Venezuela. Venezuelanalytica.com. 2008.
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  415. Claims that there is some valid criticism in the Human Rights Watch report but that it is also “almost completely drowned in a sea of de-contextualization, trumped-up accusations, and a clear and obvious bias in favor of the opposition and against the government.” Convincing or not, this report raises issues worthy of consideration.
  416. Find this resource:
  417. The Military
  418.  
  419. The military constitutes an opaque sector of Venezuelan politics and a relatively neglected one as well. A number of myths need close examination. The opposition to Chávez seems to presume that civilian control over the military was firmly established under Punto Fijo, a view best represented by Irwin 2006. Trinkunas 2005, without endorsing the changes brought about by Chávez, paints a different picture. Supporters of the president argue that Venezuela is different for a number of reasons outlined by Harnecker 2003. Norden 2003, while not addressing Harnecker, raises questions about this exceptionalism; she believes many officers are likely to resent being assigned social missions. Leone and Antonio 2007, on the other hand, argues that globalization has changed traditional notions of security in ways that have reshaped military responsibilities in many countries, including Venezuela. Burggraaff 1972 is the only major sociological study of the armed forces, but the obvious question is how much the institution has changed since his landmark study. Muller Rojas 2003 stands alone in its own right as a primary source on Bolivarian thought, but it is also the most complete exposition of the Bolivarian conception of defense strategy. Perdomo Marín 2006 interviews military officers involved in reversing the 2002 coup. Rey 1999 raises concerns about the constitutional status of the military in the 1999 charter.
  420.  
  421. Burggraaff, Winfield J. The Venezuelan Armed Forces in Politics, 1935–1959. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1972.
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  423. A rare scholarly examination of the political role of the military in the post-Gómez era. The final chapter warns that failure of the electoral democracy to deliver on development could bring the military, which seemed to have been subordinated to civilian control in the 1960s, back into politics.
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Harnecker, Marta. “The Venezuelan Military: The Making of an Anomaly.” Monthly Review 55.4 (September 2003).
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  427. Argues that the Venezuelan military is exceptional because it is less influenced by US training and doctrine, because officers are more likely to come from the lower classes, and because of the influence of Bolívar’s ideas. These assumptions are widely shared and may be true, but there is no sociological research verifying them.
  428. Find this resource:
  429. Irwin, Domingo. Control civil y pretorianismo en Venezuela. Caracas: Universidad Andrés Bello, 2006.
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  431. One of several publications by this author arguing that the Chávez government displays tendencies toward what Samuel Huntington has called “praetorianism,” which is a proclivity to look toward the military to resolve deep-seated issues and is also a reflection of weak civilian institutions.
  432. Find this resource:
  433. Leone, Rivas, and José Antonio. “Las transformaciones del Estado y las fuerzas armadas en la globalización: El caso de Venezuela.” Relaciones Internacionales 98 (August 2007): 91–111.
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  435. President Chávez has employed the armed forces in domestic programs as a way to link them to his political movement. The authors here explain how this is using the military for political ends and should be distinguished from militarism. Nation-states are still the principal political actors, but globalization has changed the roles and perspectives of actors, including the military.
  436. Find this resource:
  437. Muller Rojas, Alberto. “La nueva cara de la Fuerza Armada.” Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales 9.3 (September–December 2003): 179–204.
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  439. A retired general and close advisor to Chávez on military affairs. Known for advocating a shift in the doctrinal basis of the military from “national security” to “asymmetric warfare,” Muller Rojas argues that the concept of professionalization in the Venezuela military must change to adjust to the reality of globalization and its threat to the nation-state.
  440. Find this resource:
  441. Norden, Deborah L. “Democracy in Uniform: Chávez and the Venezuelan Armed Forces.” In Venezuelan Politics in the Chávez Era: Class, Polarization and Conflict. Edited by Steve Ellner and Daniel Hellinger, 93–112. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2003.
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  443. Chávez has “civilized” the military by putting it to work on social and economic missions that benefit the poor; however, he risks generating resentment from factions that feel such projects are not suitable for their profession. The government may not be a dictatorship, but it shows many trappings of “developmentalist” military regimes.
  444. Find this resource:
  445. Perdomo Marín, Oscar. 12 de abril de 2002 . . . ¡el ejemplo que Maracay dio! Maracay, Venezuela: Pirrueló Ediciones, 2006.
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  447. Series of interviews with military officers based in the key Maracay barracks (including General Raúl Isaías Baduel) about their participation and resistance to the short-lived military coup of 2002. Useful as primary material on the ideology and political attitude in the military. Includes Baduel elaborating on the influence of Taoism on his thinking. Baduel was lionized by Chavistas for his role in reversing the coup but later became a voice of opposition.
  448. Find this resource:
  449. Rey, Juan Carlos. “Observaciones sobre el Título VII y el Título IX de las ideas fundamentals para la Constitución bolivariana de la V República.” Revista Politeia 23 (1999): 177–200.
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  451. Venezuela’s most distinguished political scientist, known for his insightful, early critique of the Punto Fijo system, pronounces his concerns about two sections of the constitution that, in his view, politicize the military.
  452. Find this resource:
  453. Trinkunas, Harold. Crafting Civilian Control of the Military in Venezuela: A Comparative Perspective. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005.
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  455. Most of this book focuses on the period before 1998, but Trinkunas shows that the politicization of the military did not begin with Chávez; he has continued a pattern found in Punto Fijo. The result has not been so much civilian control of the military as a successful “divide and conquer” strategy that nonetheless is risky for democracy.
  456. Find this resource:
  457. Oil and Economic Policy
  458.  
  459. The Venezuelan economy is highly dependent on oil exports, so naturally oil policy has been at the heart of the country’s economic and development plans since 1920. Oil Rents and the Petro-State deals with debates about the impact of the extraordinary national income generated by oil exports and the question of whether oil is a curse or stroke of good fortune for Venezuela’s economy. This extraordinary income is often called “ground rent” in political economy. One source of “ground rent” is the land’s natural endowment, i.e., naturally advantageous conditions in Venezuela’s subsoil for production of oil. Rents can also be accumulated by landowner collaboration to limit production, one of the functions of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The nationalization of oil in 1976 at first seemed to ensure that Venezuela would take control of its destiny and remain a strong supporter of OPEC. Then the economic collapse of 1980, along with the weakening of the state, threw the oil policies of the 1970s into doubt, with executives of Petróleos de Venezuela S. A. (PDVSA) calling for a new “opening” to foreign investment to boost production, questioning the value of remaining within OPEC, and pursuing acquisition of overseas refineries and distribution systems (“internationalization”). In his first year Chávez made clear his commitment to rebuild OPEC power and not to abandon the organization; the new constitution of that year also renewed the commitment to keep PDVSA exclusively state-owned. In November 2001, after Chávez issued a decree law that imposed higher royalties and ensured majority state ownership of joint ventures, the struggle for control of the oil company between its executives and the state reached the crisis point. The Struggle to Control Oil Policy covers the issues and key events. The final subsection Economic Policy looks more closely at agricultural and industrial policies. It is difficult to separate the oil question from this topic, so those interested in oil policies should consult this section as well.
  460.  
  461. Oil Rents and the Petro-State
  462.  
  463. Before Mommer’s landmark studies (Mommer 1988, Mommer 2002), the terms “rent” and “ground rent,” drawn from classical political economy had almost no place in studies of Venezuela’s economy. When rents were mentioned, it was almost always in the negative sense, referring to the unproductive pursuit of wealth without work or risking investment. Karl 1997 is a highly regarded study in this tradition. Baptista worked with Mommer in developing and applying the economic theory of ground rent to the Venezuelan case. But whereas Mommer, who would assume a key role shaping oil policy in the Chávez administration, argues for an oil policy predicated on ensuring that the state maximize rents earned from oil exports, Baptista 2004 argues for maximizing production and exports and criticizes policies aimed at maximizing rents. Hellinger 2006 takes Mommer’s side of the argument in analyzing Venezuela’s fiscal reforms of 2001. Coronil 1997 (cited under Venezuelan History and Politics) conceives the Venezuelan state as “magical,” able to conjure up whole industries in the quest for rapid modernization. Tinker Salas 2009 deals with the commercialization and cultural change induced by the oil industry operations, but this book also explores the cultural impact of oil income on the society.
  464.  
  465. Baptista, Asdrúbal. El Relevo del Capitalismo Rentístico. Hacía un Nuevo Balance de Poder. Caracas: Fundación Polar, 2004.
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  467. Baptista was a collaborator with Mommer, but his views on ground rent led him to become a defender of the “oil opening” policies reversed by Chávez in 2001 and thus a critic of the policies Mommer helped implement. Argues for oil policies designed to emphasize production over maximizing appropriation of international ground rent.
  468. Find this resource:
  469. Hellinger, Daniel. “Venezuelan Oil: Free Gift of Nature or Wealth of a Nation?” International Journal (Winter 2006): 55–67.
  470. DOI: 10.2307/40204245Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  471. The reform of the fiscal policies carried out by Chávez in 2001 was a reversal of neoliberal policies that stressed attracting foreign investment with minimum royalties and taxes in order to boost production.
  472. Find this resource:
  473. Karl, Terry Lynn. The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petro States. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
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  475. An influential, widely cited and debated book arguing that development in Venezuela and other Third World oil exporters has been stunted by the “coincidence” of state formation and arrival of foreign oil companies. Oil revenues “poured” into the state, not the private sector, resulting in a weak civil society and excessively powerful oil executives.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. Mommer, Bernard. La cuestión petrolera. Caracas: Asociación de Profesores UCV-Tropykos, 1988.
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  479. Key work because of (1) the theoretical perspective arguing for a classical view of oil income as a form of ground rent; (2) a revisionist history of oil policy, critically assessing, for example, the oil policies of Betancourt; and (3) the role that the author would play as a vice-minister in reversing the apertura petrolera (oil opening).
  480. Find this resource:
  481. Mommer, Bernard. Global Oil and the Nation State. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
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  483. Written before the author left the Oxford Energy Institute to assume a position as a key oil policymaker in the Chávez administration, this work deals with the role of global governance and includes several extended analyses of the role of Venezuela in the global oil regime.
  484. Find this resource:
  485. Tinker Salas, Miguel. The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009.
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  487. A historian raised in an eastern oil camp argues against viewing the oil industry as an isolated enclave of modernity or as pernicious neocolonialism. Based in part on extensive interviews with a fast-disappearing generation, this book provides a social history missing from other accounts of oil’s role in shaping Venezuelan society. Very accessible.
  488. Find this resource:
  489. The Struggle to Control Oil Policy
  490.  
  491. The works here focus on the political struggles over oil industry policies. Rodríguez Araque 1997 was part of a circle of thinkers with Mommer 2004 in the pre-Chávez era; he went on to implement nationalist oil policies during the crucial years (2001–2004) of struggle between the government and the state oil company executives. Ramón Espinasa is a critic of the Chávez record on oil, and Espinasa 2006 is a good representation of opposition views. Yanes 2004 gives the government’s account of its victory in the oil industry shutdown of 2002–2003, the crucial struggle with oil executives for control of oil policies and the company. For the perspective of oil industry executives who forged the “opening” to foreign investment of the 1990s and the acquisition of overseas assets (refineries, distributorships, etc., known as “internationalization”) see Gente de Petróleo. Lander 2003 is a largely critical assessment of the oil opening and “internationalization” policies of PDVSA in the 1990s and a largely positive assessment of the Chávez-era policies. Rodríguez 2006 argues that despite some important gains in fiscal benefits, the “oil opening” of the 1990s has continued into the Chávez years. Boué 2004 provides a critical view of the internationalization policies of the late Punto Fijo era, some of which have been reversed under Chávez.
  492.  
  493. Boué, Juan Carlos. La internacionalización de PDVSA: Una costosa ilusión. Caracas: Ediciones del Ministerio de Energía y Minas, 2004.
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  495. Study completed while author was affiliated with Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and published by the oil ministry where he later worked. Argues that the state oil company after 1983 acquired overseas assets largely to safeguard profits, not necessarily to guarantee markets; as a result, business principles were compromised.
  496. Find this resource:
  497. Espinasa, Ramón. “El auge y el colapso de PDVSA a los treinta años de la nacionalización.” Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencizas Sociales 12.1 (January–April 2006): 147–182.
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  499. Espinasa endorses the increase in production and “opening” to foreign investment of the 1990s. PDVSA was thus a largely successful company until it was derailed by political interference and rent seeking.
  500. Find this resource:
  501. Gente de Petróleo.
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  503. Mostly made up of executives and professionals from PDVSA (most of whom were fired after the government defeat of the oil industry shutdown of 2002–2003). Defends the policies of the 1990s and criticizes oil policy in the Chavista years.
  504. Find this resource:
  505. Lander, Luis E., ed. Poder y Petróleo en Venezuela. Caracas: Faces-UCV, 2003.
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  507. Collection of articles by experts and policymakers favorably inclined toward the 2001 oil law and critical of the “oil opening” and “internationalization” policies of the 1990s. Topics include an essay by Lander and Margarita López-Maya placing the struggle between the state company and government for control over oil policy at the heart of the 2002 coup attempt.
  508. Find this resource:
  509. Mommer, Bernard. El mito de la Orimulsión, valorización de crudo extrapesado de la Faja Petrolifera del Orinoco. Caracas: Ediciones del Ministerio de Energía y Minas, 2004.
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  511. Oil expert and vice-minister who took the lead in the controversial renegotiation of foreign investment contracts in heavy oil production in the Chávez government. Argues that contracts for foreign investment in heavy oil in the Orinoco region were overly generous to foreign investors, brought little benefit to Venezuela, and undermined the country’s position in OPEC.
  512. Find this resource:
  513. Rodríguez, Policarpo A. Petróleo en Venezuela ayer, hoy y mañana: cinco décadas de historia económica venezolana. Caracas: Los Libros de El Nacional, 2006.
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  515. Balanced review of oil policy, arguing that the oil opening continues under Chávez despite revision of investment contracts.
  516. Find this resource:
  517. Rodríguez Araque, Alí. El proceso de privatización petrolera en Venezuela. Los Teques, Venezuela: Fondo Editorial ALEM, 1997.
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  519. A critique of the apertura petrolera (“oil opening”) arguing that the ultimate goal of PDVSA management was to privatize the state company. Under Chávez, Rodríguez would become Secretary of OPEC and then president of PDVSA during the opposition-led work stoppage that shut down PDVSA for three months in 2002–2003.
  520. Find this resource:
  521. Yanes, Marianella. El Rescate del Cerebro de PDVSA. Caracas: PDVSA, 2004.
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  523. Company’s account of the work stoppage of 2002–2003. Discusses oil policy as well as the conflict itself.
  524. Find this resource:
  525. Economic Policy
  526.  
  527. Assessments of the economy in the Chávez years are nearly as polarized as judgments about politics. Giordani 2009 defends government policies and outlines, from his view as planning minister, the intended path forward. Guerra 2004 and Maza Zavala 2009 are harshly critical. Weisbrot 2011 criticizes some policies, especially on the exchange rate, but rates the government’s handling of economic matters much more positively. Between opposing views lies Coing 2007, which argues for a pragmatic approach to the power industry, combining participatory policymaking with decentralization, and advocating regulation over nationalization. Early in the Chávez years Kelly and Palma 2004 outlined reasons for departure from the old regime’s approach, without endorsing the policies of the new regime. Velásquez 2006 offers a revealing study of a micro-economy that reveals just how capitalist the Venezuelan economy remains. Di John 2009 is notable for analysis of the political difficulty in shifting away from policies after completion of the “easy” phases of industrialization in the Punto Fijo era. Given the persistence of capitalism, Mujica Chirinos and Rincón González 2006 is a study of the difficulty of reconciling redistribution with capitalist accumulation that takes on increased relevance for assessing the future of Bolivarian socialism.
  528.  
  529. Coing, Henrí. Historia de la regulación eléctrica en Venezuela. Merida, Venezuela: Universidad de los Andes, 2007.
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  531. A case study on the low administrative capacity of the Venezuelan state to carry out effective policies, focused on electrical utilities. Coing argues for decentralization but not necessarily for a stark choice between privatization or nationalization. He prefers policy be made through a bottom-up process of discussion. Such an alliance cannot be created by decree, perhaps alluding to nationalizations under Chávez.
  532. Find this resource:
  533. Di John, Jonathan. From Windfall to Curse? Oil and Industrialization in Venezuela, 1920 to the Present. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009.
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  535. A departure from the usual debate about statist versus laissez faire economic policies and from viewing oil as either “windfall” or “curse.” Until the late 1960s, says Di John, industrialization was in a relatively “easy” phase, with low demands on skilled labor and technology; but in the transition to heavier industrialization, the state failed to adjust its regulatory behavior accordingly.
  536. Find this resource:
  537. Giordani, Jorge. La transición venezolana, y la búqueda de su propio camino. Caracas: Vadell Hermanos, 2009.
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  539. An extended explanation of the government’s strategy of development by an academic who has served as planning minister. The book is organized such that the reader can compare the criticism in most of the publications reviewed here with the view of a key architect of economic policies.
  540. Find this resource:
  541. Guerra, José. La política económica en Venezuela 1999–2003. Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, 2004.
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  543. The early years of the Chávez administration were difficult economically. The government cites the political instability and economic chaos caused by the opposition coup and work stoppages. This account lays the blame on government policies, especially monetary policy.
  544. Find this resource:
  545. Kelly, Janet, and Pedro A. Palma. “The Syndrome of Economic Decline and the Quest for Change.” In The Unraveling of Representative Democracy in Venezuela. Edited by Jennifer L. McCoy and David J. Myers, 202–230. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.
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  547. Until her death in 2003, and despite her affiliation with a pro-business management institute, Kelly was highly respected for her ability to bridge the yawning gap between the Chávez government and the opposition. That is reflected in this balanced account of the economic decline of the pre-1998 regime and the policy challenges facing the new administration.
  548. Find this resource:
  549. Maza Zavala, Domingo Felipe. La década crítica de la economía venezolana, 1998–2007. Caracas: Libros de El Nacional, 2009.
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  551. Collection of published articles by a leftist economist who despite his reputation as a critic of the earlier regime is also critical of Chávez’s policies. Maza Zavala claims Chávez’s policies in pursuit of socialism have weakened and deformed the economy; Maza Zavala blames the use of oil revenues to over-stimulate consumption without concomitant production.
  552. Find this resource:
  553. Mujica Chirinos, Norbis, and Sorayada Rincón González. “Caracterización de la política social y la política económica del actual gobierno venezolano: 1999–2004.” Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales 12.1 (January–April 2006): 31–57.
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  555. The first years of the Chávez administration saw a shift from “open neoliberalismo” to “silent adjustment”: that is, no radical break from the policies criticized in the 1998 campaign. After 2001 the government placed more emphasis upon social assistance and reduction of social exclusion. The government continues to search for a way to harmonize capital accumulation with redistribution through state intervention.
  556. Find this resource:
  557. Velásquez, Andrés. “La globalización en Venezuela y el estado Sucre.” Tierra Firme (April–June 2006): 231–259.
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  559. In Sucre, state government programs seek to develop energy sources and tourism but “hide the interests of globalized capital.” An impressive array of data on investments originating in Brazil, Asia, etc., purportedly shows that despite socialist rhetoric and valuable social programs, the Venezuelan economy remains capitalist and globally integrated. Good example of the value of subnational analysis.
  560. Find this resource:
  561. Weisbrot, Mark. “Venezuela in the Chávez Years: Its Economy and Influence on the Region.” In The Revolution in Venezuela: Social and Political Change under Chávez. Edited by Thomas Ponniah and Jonathan Eastwood, 193–224. Cambridge, MA: David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University, 2011.
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  563. Argues that critics are wrong to argue that Venezuela’s economic growth has been largely due to high oil prices. The shift from neoliberalism and diversification of economic relations with other countries are symbiotically connected to changes in Venezuela, and they are not likely to revert back to the model promoted by the United States.
  564. Find this resource:
  565. Foreign Policy and Hemispheric Relations
  566.  
  567. Venezuelan foreign policy under Chávez displays a certain continuity with the past in seeking to expand the country’s influence in the Caribbean and Central America. For example, providing oil on discounted financing terms, a major feature of Chávez’s PetroCaribe initiative, resembles programs implemented by President Carlos Andrés Pérez in the 1970s. However, under Chávez Venezuela has gone much farther in promoting Pan Americanism according to a script laid down by Bolívar himself: unity among Latin American nations as a way to resist expansionism on the part of the United States. One might also say that under Chávez, Venezuela adopted an even broader vision, seeing itself as a leader on a global scale in organizing resistance to United States unilateralism. This is one goal of the Bolivarian Alternative in the Americas (ALBA), a Venezuelan economic integration scheme incorporating Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and some Caribbean states, based on “solidaristic” social and economic relations and promoted as an alternative to the neoliberal Free Trade Area of the Americas. Not surprisingly, this orientation has brought the Chávez regime in conflict with the United States. Intemperate remarks by both US officials and Chávez have made the conflict hotter at times. The first set of entries in this section deals with Venezuelan foreign policy aims on a global scale (Bolivarian Foreign Policy). The second set focuses more specifically on Relations with the United States. The third section, Latin American Left and Chavismo, examines the Bolivarian regime in the context of the broader surge of the left in Latin America, the so called “Pink Tide.” The works cited here examine several issues, including: Is Chavismo just old populism in a new guise? What does Chávez share with other leftist leaders, and where does he differ? Is Chávez part of the old left or the new left?
  568.  
  569. Bolivarian Foreign Policy
  570.  
  571. Virtually all foreign policy analysts recognize that the 1998 election of Chávez represented a “left turn” in Latin American politics, as it has been followed by a series of similar election triumphs (not without some setbacks) throughout Latin America. Where analysts disagree is whether or not Chávez’s foreign policy has materially aided this development and whether it represents a threat either to democracy or hemispheric security. The affirmative answer largely appears in the popular news media and the statements of radical-right members of the US Congress. Even the most critical academic analyses, such as Corrales 2011, are considerably more moderate in assessing the impact of Venezuelan policy. Clem and Maingot 2011 lacks continuity but nevertheless provides a good example of the spectrum of opinion about the goals and effectiveness of Venezuelan policy. It also is one of the few volumes to include analysis of the global reach of Venezuelan foreign policy, perhaps the most marked departure from the Punto Fijo era—unless, of course, one takes into account the overall shift in Venezuela’s relations with the United States. Oddly, the critics (Giacalone 2005, Launay 2010) tend to agree with the admirers (e.g., Weisbrot 2011) in seeing, beyond the personal animosity between Chávez and former US President George W. Bush, the challenge to neoliberal globalization as the underlying motive for Venezuelan policy. ALBA Institutions and Mechanisms provides a description and some analysis of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), the Venezuelan initiative to forge an alternative (to neoliberalism) economic integration scheme for Latin America. Williams 2011 offers a dispassionate interpretation of Venezuela’s attempt to balance ideological and real-politics goals.
  572.  
  573. Altmann, Josette. ALBA Institutions and Mechanisms. San Jose, Costa Rica: Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLASCO).
  574. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  575. As the title implies, this gives a description of the institutional structures of ALBA, including a summary of the history and objectives. The author sees some prospects for advancement, but she also notes some significant difficulties, not the least being conflicting agendas with other hemispheric initiatives.
  576. Find this resource:
  577. Clem, Ralph S., and Anthony P. Maingot, eds. Venezuela’s Petro-diplomacy: Hugo Chávez’s Foreign Policy. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2011.
  578. DOI: 10.5744/florida/9780813035307.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  579. A very scattershot collection of essays, both in terms of quality and coverage. Early chapters addressing overall shift from earlier administrations and general goals are more useful. Some useful contributions on the impact of PetroCaribe, the program of discounts to Caribbean countries, and ALBA. Unfortunately, no chapter really addresses “petro-diplomacy” in terms of relations with OPEC and the Middle East, new trade, and investments relations with Asia, etc.
  580. Find this resource:
  581. Corrales, Javier. “Conflicting Goals in Venezuela’s Foreign Policy.” In Venezuela’s Petro-diplomacy: Hugo Chávez’s Foreign Policy. Edited by Ralph S. Clem and Anthony P. Maingot, 132–148. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2011.
  582. DOI: 10.5744/florida/9780813035307.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  583. Corrales argues that Chávez’s attempts to counter US hegemony do not threaten US national security, however “generous handouts peppered with a pro-poor, distributionist discourse” give the Chávez regime “soft power.” Chávez does not seek to export Bolivarianism, but he does seek expanded Venezuelan influence and challenges US national interests.
  584. Find this resource:
  585. Giacalone, Rita. “The Impact of Neo-populist Civilian-Military Coalitions on Regional Integration and Democracy: The Case of Venezuela.” Journal of Political and Military Sociology 33 (Summer 2005): 25–38.
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  587. Neoliberal regimes oriented to markets and free trade largely cooperate with one another, diminishing prospects for conflict in Latin America; but civilian-military regimes have arisen in reaction to popular discontent with neoliberal regimes encouraged by globalization. They represent a threat to regional security and US interests, the author argues, by putting prospects for hemispheric free trade in doubt.
  588. Find this resource:
  589. Launay, Stephen. Chávez-Uribe: Deux voies pour l’Amérique latine? Paris: Buchet-Chastel, 2010.
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  591. Chávez and former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe voice opposite views on Latin America’s future, but ultimately Brazil will have greater influence on Latin America’s future. Launay is sympathetic to Uribe. Given the subsequent rapprochement between Chávez and Uribe’s successor, President Juan Manuel Santos, one can question this study’s value: but it lays bare issues that almost brought Colombia and Venezuela to war.
  592. Find this resource:
  593. Weisbrot, Mark. “Venezuela in the Chávez Years: Its Economy and Influence on the Region.” In The Revolution in Venezuela: Social and Political Change under Chávez. Edited by Thomas Ponniah and Jonathan Eastwood, 193–224. Cambridge, MA: David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University, 2011.
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  595. Besides success at home, Venezuela has had success promoting an alternative to neoliberal economic integration in the region. The shift from neoliberalism and diversification of economic relations with other countries are symbiotically connected to changes in Venezuela, and they are not likely to revert back to the model promoted by the United States.
  596. Find this resource:
  597. Williams, Mark Eric. “The New Balancing Act: International Relations Theory and Venezuela’s Foreign Policy.” In The Revolution in Venezuela: Social and Political Change under Chávez. Edited by Thomas Ponniah and Jonathan Eastwood, 155–192. Cambridge, MA: David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University, 2011.
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  599. Applies a realist framework to understanding Venezuelan foreign policy, arguing against emphasis on individual leaders—Chávez and George W. Bush. There is an underlying logic behind Venezuelan foreign policy, guided by the overall goal of resistance to US unilateralism. Ironically, however, Venezuelan foreign policy does not depart radically from the foreign policy coming out of Washington.
  600. Find this resource:
  601. Relations with the United States
  602.  
  603. Shifter 2006 and Trinkunas 2011 offer realist-based assessments of the possibilities of Venezuelan policy. Both see challenges but warn against exaggeration of Venezuelan capabilities. Hellinger 2012 takes a similar view but sees the clash over economic integration—Pan-Americanism versus Washington’s defense of its hegemony—as the fundamental issue to be managed. Rodríguez 2004, authored by a key member of Chávez’s inner circle, outlines Venezuela’s alternative view of economic integration. Romero and Corrales 2010 argues that Venezuela is exacerbating tensions with the United States as a result of its attempts to export radical populism. Golinger 2006 and Golinger 2008 jump beyond the evidence in asserting Washington’s complicity in attempts to overthrow the Chávez government, but Golinger’s unearthing of highly compromising documents lays bare a much more sinister set of actions by the United States than the mainstream media typically acknowledges. Ewell 1996 (cited under Venezuelan History and Politics) is useful despite being published before Chávez assumed office; it demonstrates that the country’s challenge to Washington has historical precedents.
  604.  
  605. Golinger, Eva. The Chávez Code: Cracking US Intervention in Venezuela. Northampton, MA: Olive Branch, 2006.
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  607. Golinger’s conclusions about the intentions and actions of Venezuelan and US opponents of Chávez are sometimes exaggerated, she uses the Freedom of Information Act (aided by journalist Jeremy Bigwood) to expose extensive US financing of Venezuelan groups and individuals dedicated to overthrowing Chávez. This is a powerful exposé of US intervention in the country’s internal politics.
  608. Find this resource:
  609. Golinger, Eva. Bush versus Chávez: Washington’s War on Venezuela. New York: Monthly Review, 2008.
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  611. Similar to Golinger 2006, but with additional revelations based on documents obtained by using the Freedom of Information Act.
  612. Find this resource:
  613. Hellinger, Daniel. Global Security Watch—Venezuela. New York: Praeger, 2012.
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  615. Venezuelan diplomacy challenges US hegemony in the Americas, but there are some common interests in areas such as oil and prevention of drug trafficking that could permit the relationship to be managed despite continuing tensions. Comprehensive look at security issues between the two countries.
  616. Find this resource:
  617. Rodríguez, Alí. Petroamérica vs. ALCA: Conversaciones con Luis Bilbao. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Capital Intelectual, 2004.
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  619. Provides some insight as to how Venezuela seeks to blunt the US effort to promote the Free Trade Area of the Americas (ALCA, in Spanish) by use of petro-diplomacy.
  620. Find this resource:
  621. Romero, Carlos, and Javier Corrales. “Relations between the United States and Venezuela, 2001–2009.” In Contemporary U.S.-Latin American Relations: Cooperation or Conflict in the 21st Century. Edited by Jorge I. Domínguez and Rafael Fernández de Castro, 218–246. New York: Routledge, 2010.
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  623. The underlying cause of tension between the United States and Venezuela is the latter’s attempt under Chávez to spread radical populism abroad. This makes it difficult to envision cooperation between the US and Venezuela until there is a regime change.
  624. Find this resource:
  625. Shifter, Michael. “In Search of Hugo Chávez.” Foreign Affairs 85.3 (May–June 2006): 45–59.
  626. DOI: 10.2307/20031966Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  627. In contrast to Williams 2011 (cited under Bolivarian Foreign Policy), Shifter sees Venezuelan policy, especially toward the United States, as driven mainly by the predilections of Chávez. Although clearly unsympathetic to the Venezuelan leader, the author also warns against the tendency to caricature the Venezuelan president and cautions against overreactions on the part of the Bush administration.
  628. Find this resource:
  629. Trinkunas, Harold A. “The Logic of Venezuelan Foreign Policy during the Chávez Period.” In Venezuela’s Petro-diplomacy: Hugo Chávez’s Foreign Policy. Edited by Ralph S. Clem and Anthony P. Maingot, 16–31. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2011.
  630. DOI: 10.5744/florida/9780813035307.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  631. Despite some historical continuity, an important shift in Venezuelan diplomacy occurred because of Chávez’s view of US hegemony and pretentions of military unipolarity. A professor at the US Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, Trinkunas judges Chávez’s challenge to be more an “irritation” than a threat. His judicious conclusions contrast with more extreme analyses issuing from the war colleges.
  632. Find this resource:
  633. The Latin American Left and Chavismo
  634.  
  635. The works that most greatly diverge in assessing Chávez’s place within the Latin American left are Ellner 2012, Petkoff 2000, and Petkoff 2011. Petkoff makes an argument similar to, for example, former foreign minister Jorge Casteñeda of Mexico, who sees a deep divide between Chávez, Evo Morales of Bolivia, and Rafael Correa of Ecuador, on the one hand, and figures such as Lula of Brazil and Bachelet of Chile on the other. The former lack a true commitment to pluralist democracy and show streaks of irresponsible populism, while the latter are more responsible and social democratic. Ellner acknowledges differences but highlights the tendency toward greater unity in hemispheric and world affairs and points out significant differences in the social bases and policies among the more radical regimes. Goldfrank 2011 reinforces Ellner’s conclusions. Chávez’s interview with Guevara includes the Venezuelan leader’s views on Cuba. Cameron and Hershberg 2010; Madrid, et al. 2010; and Levitsky and Roberts 2011 are edited volumes, and the contributors provide a range of views on the issue. López-Maya 2011 provides a contribution reflecting the author’s gradual alienation from a regime she once supported (though never uncritically).
  636.  
  637. Cameron, Maxwell A., and Eric Hershberg, eds. Latin America’s Left Turns. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2010.
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  639. Includes several articles comparing the Chávez regime to other leftist presidencies, most notably John French’s comparison of Lula and Chávez. These two had a close relationship despite the more moderate policies of the former. Lula concentrated more on redistribution and Chávez on deeper structural change.
  640. Find this resource:
  641. Ellner, Steve. “The Distinguishing Features of Latin America’s New Left in Power: The Governments of Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales, and Rafael Correa.” Latin American Perspectives 39 (January 2012): 96–114.
  642. DOI: 10.1177/0094582X11425333Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  643. Chávez has in common with Morales and Correa a more radical agenda and commitment to socialism than most other leftist leaders. But analysts such as Teodoro Petkoff (see Petkoff 2011) err in categorizing these governments as the “bad left” in contrast to “good” social democratic leaders. The support bases and issues facing these three leaders are contrasted.
  644. Find this resource:
  645. Goldfrank, Benjamin. “The Left and Participatory Democracy: Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela.” In The Resurgence of the Latin American Left. Edited by Kenneth Roberts and Steven Levitsky, 162–183. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.
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  647. A noted expert on participatory budgeting in Brazil highlights the tension between participatory and representative institutions in three countries. While top-down centralizing tendencies are strong, there remains in Venezuela and in Chavismo a counter-tendency at the grassroots.
  648. Find this resource:
  649. Guevara, Aleida. Chávez: Un hombre que anda por ahí. Melbourne, Australia: Ocean, 2005.
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  651. Interviews with Chávez and others, plus reflections from the daughter of Che Guevara. Provides insight to Chávez’s thinking before he pronounced himself for “21st-century socialism.”
  652. Find this resource:
  653. Levitsky, Steven, and Kenneth M. Roberts, eds. The Resurgence of the Latin American Left. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.
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  655. Almost all the articles in this scholarly compilation make reference to the Venezuelan case, and one chapter (López-Maya 2011) focuses on it. The volume attributes the “pink tide” phenomenon to popular discontent with neoliberalism, but the editors also assert that democratization allowed the left, including Chávez, to capitalize.
  656. Find this resource:
  657. López-Maya, Margarita. “Venezuela: Hugo Chávez and the Populist Left.” In The Resurgence of the Latin American Left. Edited by Kenneth Roberts and Steven Levitsky, 213–238. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.
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  659. Venezuela is the most extreme case of leftist populism and shows a tendency toward “a centralized, personalistic, and authoritarian model.” This conclusion comes from a scholar who was generally optimistic before the 2006 election, but who became increasingly crtical of Chávez as he advanced his project for a communal state.
  660. Find this resource:
  661. Madrid, Raúl L., Wendy Hunter, and Kurt Weyland, eds. Leftist Governments in Latin America: Successes and Shortcomings. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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  663. Tends to present a more scholarly and moderate version of the thesis argued by Petkoff 2011. The unifying theme is examination of the difficulty in reconciling the goals of deepening democracy, redistribution, and economic growth. A chapter by Corrales interprets Chávez as espousing a failed populism of the past.
  664. Find this resource:
  665. Petkoff, Teodoro. La Venezuela de Chávez: Una segunda opinion. Caracas: Grjalbo, 2000.
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  667. A founder of the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party, a former planning minister, criticized by the left for backing neo-liberal policies of the second Caldera government (1994–1998), states why he broke with MAS over support for Chávez in 1998. Petkoff also criticizes what he called the “reactionary opposition,” anticipating its failures between 2002 and 2004.
  668. Find this resource:
  669. Petkoff, Teodoro. The Two Lefts: Chávez, Venezuela, and Contemporary Left Wing Politics. Lulu.com, 2011.
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  671. Largely self-published in English, having appeared originally in 2005 in Spanish (Caracas: Alfadil). Claims that Chávez represents an irresponsible and dangerous populist left within the context of the growing strength of the left in the region.
  672. Find this resource:
  673. Populism and Chavismo
  674.  
  675. The works cited in this section deal with one of the most contested issues in debates about the character of Chavismo. To some analysts, Chavismo is compromised by the same kind of clientelism practiced by historical populists such as Perón, Goulart, etc. Hawkins 2003 and Hawkins 2009 best represent this perspective. Dorraj and Dodson 2009 makes a similar diagnosis, though the authors argue, based on comparison with Iran, that the causes are rooted in globalization. Caballero 2000 sees in Chavismo similarities with past populist practices in Venezuela. Ellner 2004 and Motta 2011 argue that too many analysts have overlooked the differences between Chavismo and populism in the mid-20th century. Raby 2006 takes a different tack in defending Chavismo, arguing that populism actually reinforces revolutionary tendencies in the case of Venezuela. Uzcategui 2010 (cited under Movements, Clientelism, Hierarchy) is sympathetic to Bolivarianism but believes populism is undermining its viability. Cannon 2010 and Roberts 2003 occupy a middle ground in the question of populism, seeing in Chavismo both similarities and differences with other experiences. Readers should also see several of the sources cited in the Latin American Left and Chavismo that deal with populism in the context of comparing Chávez to other Latin American leaders.
  676.  
  677. Caballero, Manuel. La gestación de Hugo Chávez: 40 años de luces y sombras en la democracia venezolana. Madrid: Catarata, 2000.
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  679. A distinguished historian and critical biographer of Rómulo Betancourt laments and analyzes the collapse of the Punto Fijo regime. The concluding chapter argues that Chávez represents a new “populist illusion.”
  680. Find this resource:
  681. Cannon, Barry. Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution: Populism and Democracy in a Globalized World. Manchester, UK: University of Manchester Press, 2010.
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  683. Cannon argues that the term “populism” cannot be applied without disclaimers both to Chávez and someone such as Peru’s Alberto Fujimori. Chávez’s populism is a response to neoliberal globalization forged in the context of Venezuela’s political history and culture. Cannon also argues that Chavismo relies too much on the charismatic authority of its leader and needs to institutionalize itself.
  684. Find this resource:
  685. Dorraj, Manochehr, and Michael Dodson. “Neopopulism in Comparative Perspective.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 29.1 (2009): 137–151.
  686. DOI: 10.1215/1089201X-2008-049Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  687. The authors see contemporary Iran and Venezuela as comparable cases of neopopulism arising out of the social polarization and popular discontent generated by neoliberal globalization. They recognize tendencies toward grassroots democracy in both cases but are skeptical that these will eventually triumph over clientelist tendencies related to the oil export economies and the highly personalist and centralizing tendencies of the dominant leaders’ personalities.
  688. Find this resource:
  689. Ellner, Steve. “Hugo Chávez y Alverto Fujimori: Análisis comparative de dos variantes de populismo.” Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales 10 (January–April 2004): 13–38.
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  691. Ellner contends that attempts to view Chávez and Fujimore as similar abuse the concept of populism by failing to note the substantial differences between the two, including their social bases and, in the case of Chávez, his desire to institutionalize his following in a political party.
  692. Find this resource:
  693. Hawkins, Kirk. “Populism in Venezuela: The Rise of Chavismo.” Third World Quarterly 24.6 (2003): 1137–1160.
  694. DOI: 10.1080/01436590310001630107Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  695. If populism is a style of politics characterized by a charismatic leader who in a Manichean style appeals directly to the masses, unmediated by a political party, then Chavismo fits this description, says Hawkins. This populist style undermines the democratic goals espoused by the movement. Supported by survey research conducted in the early 2000s.
  696. Find this resource:
  697. Hawkins, Kirk. “Is Chávez Populist? Measuring Populist Discourse in Comparative Perspective.” Comparative Political Studies 42.8 (2009): 1040–1067.
  698. DOI: 10.1177/0010414009331721Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  699. Essentially, Hawkins’s answer here is, “yes.” Using a definition relying upon the nature of the mass appeal of a populist, he develops a measure that can be tested through content analysis and finds similarities between Chávez and other populist leaders.
  700. Find this resource:
  701. Motta, Sara C. “Populism’s Achilles’ Heel: Popular Democracy beyond the Liberal State and the Market Economy in Venezuela.” Latin American Perspectives 38.176 (January 2011): 28–46.
  702. DOI: 10.1177/0094582X10384208Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  703. Although there are certain ways that Chávez’s approach resembles populist practices of the past, applying “populism” as a conceptual tool of political analysis obscures the reality of Venezuelan politics because of its liberal bias: a bias that focuses on leadership and alliances more than on the lived experience of people in the “popular classes.”
  704. Find this resource:
  705. Raby, Diana. Democracy and Revolution Latin America and Socialism Today. London: Verso, 2006.
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  707. Raby criticizes socialist theorists who see the new participatory institutions, such as the communal councils, as a step toward “making revolution without taking power.” While innovations are to be welcomed, they do not replace the need for leadership. Populism, even when it produces a highly personalist and centralized leader, can fulfill that need when the leader expresses the will of this participatory majority.
  708. Find this resource:
  709. Roberts, Kenneth M. “Social Correlates of Party System Demise and Populist Resurgence in Venezuela.” Latin American Politics and Society 45.3 (2003): 35–57.
  710. DOI: 10.2307/3177158Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  711. Sees the Venezuelan case as paradigmatic of the way neoliberal economic policies have contributed to a resurgence of populism and engendered working-class support for leftist candidates and parties. It is relatively neutral in the lively debate about the ramifications of populism for Chavismo.
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  713. Social Policy and the “Missions”
  714.  
  715. Although Chávez always envisioned Bolivarianism as a muscular coalition of civilians and the military to radically reform Venezuelan society, it was the spontaneous popular reaction against the short-lived coup of 2002 that launched the social mobilization campaigns, characterized as misiones (or “missions”) and aimed at lifting social conditions, which had deteriorated dramatically in the previous twenty years. The results are hotly debated. On the one hand, Venezuela has been lauded as the only country in the region to have achieved the United Nations antipoverty millennium goals. However, most of the statistics used to confirm this achievement are regarded with suspicion by the opposition. On the whole, most independent observers have recognized significant gains in nutrition, health, education, etc. However, many of these analysts raise questions about the sustainability of the missions which have been weakly institutionalized and are financed in substantial part by funds controlled by the executive branch and state oil company, with little oversight. Some works cited in this section bring to light an important characteristic of Venezuelan social and economic policy: the attempt to link them systematically to social mobilization and participatory democracy. In design, most programs are linked to grassroots organizations that in theory are to direct funds and energy to projects decided by communal councils, where these organizations and movements are represented. Bolivarian socialism envisions such councils as crucial institutions for the development of “21st-century socialism.” Critics and the opposition in Venezuela see them as attempts to bypass such elected authorities as state and local officials and the National Assembly.
  716.  
  717. Health, Poverty, and Education
  718.  
  719. There are few good field studies of the missions. Gómez and Alarcón 2003 provides a good benchmark for judging social conditions at the outset of the Chávez years. Anselmi 2008 provides a rare, extensive look at education policy; Briggs and Mantini-Briggs 2009 does the same for health care. Muntaner, et al. 2011 is a good exposition on how programs are linked to social mobilization. Rodríguez 2008 and Weisbrot 2008 are at loggerheads about whether the missions have significantly alleviated social privation since 1998.
  720.  
  721. Anselmi, Manuel. I bambini de Chávez. Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2008.
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  723. Based on a field study, the author finds Venezuelan education policy to be based on socialist revisionism and Bolívar’s thought. The resulting ideology behind education reform emphasizes community and a somewhat utopian, antistatist vision in keeping with the deep disillusionment about the Punto Fijo system.
  724. Find this resource:
  725. Briggs, Charles I., and Clara Mantini-Briggs. “Confronting Health Disparities: Latin American Social Medicine in Venezuela.” American Journal of Public Health 99 (March 2009): 549–555.
  726. DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2007.129130Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  727. The authors argue, based on survey research, that Venezuela’s Barrio Adentro program has been effective in part because it was designed with popular consultation, in contrast to programs in other parts of the region.
  728. Find this resource:
  729. Gómez, Irey, and Luis Alarcón. “Los nudos críticos de la política social venzolana de 1989–2001.” Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales 9 (May–August 2003): 13–36.
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  731. Social policies in the ten years preceding the election of Chávez were directed at the transition to a market-oriented economy. According to the study, the first years of the Chávez regime were marked by important political changes but also by continuity in social policies. This study was completed before the “missions” got under way, but for that same reason it provides a useful benchmark.
  732. Find this resource:
  733. Muntaner, Carlos, Haejoo Chung, Qamar Mahmood, and Francisco Armada. “History is Not Over: The Bolivarian Revolution, ‘Barrio Adentro.’” In The Revolution in Venezuela: Social and Political Change under Chávez. Edited by Thomas Ponniah and Jonathan Eastwood, 225–256. Cambridge, MA: David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University, 2011.
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  735. In part an exposition and defense of the Bolivarian project, but most valuable for its description and analysis of what is perhaps the signature “social mission” launched by Chávez: the health-care initiative. The authors argue that aside from significant statistical achievements, the success of the program must be attributed to the involvement of thousands of poor Venezuelans in neighborhood health committees.
  736. Find this resource:
  737. Rodríguez, Francisco. “An Empty Revolution: The Unfulfilled Promises of Hugo Chávez.” Foreign Affairs 87.2 (2008): 49–62.
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  739. As the title implies, this article disputes claims that the Chávez government has significantly reduced poverty and succeeded in improving living conditions—e.g., through the educational and health “missions”—for Venezuelans. Questions the reliability of some government statistics but also relies on partisan studies and analysis to draw its conclusions. For a contrasting view, see Weisbrot 2008.
  740. Find this resource:
  741. Weisbrot, Mark. An Empty Research Agenda: the Creation of Myths about Contemporary Venezuela. Washington, DC: Center for Economic and Policy Research, 2008.
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  743. Weisbrot contends that critics (e.g., Rodríguez 2008) of the Chávez government’s economic record are distorting the facts. He presents his own data and analysis in response.
  744. Find this resource:
  745. Women
  746.  
  747. Friedman 2000 provides a benchmark and historical background on gender politics in Venezuela. Fernández 2007 is illustrative of studies indicating the extent to which participation in the missions has affected gender relations and women’s influence in community life. Castañeda and del Mar Alvarez 2000 points toward the important role that women had in shaping the 1999 constitution. Rakowski and Espina 2011 finds some gains for women in the Chavista era but also demonstrates just how the government’s rhetoric falls short.
  748.  
  749. Castañeda, Nora, and María del Mar Álvarez. “Proceso Constituyente: Propuestas para la Constitución de la República de Venezuela desde la Mirada de las mujeres.” Revista Venezolana de Estudies de la Mujer 5.14 (January–June 2000): 147–155.
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  751. A document stating the position of the most important women’s organizations on issues of greatest concern to them under consideration of the Constituent Assembly, which wrote the new constitution in 1999. The issue contains other useful primary resources and four articles analyzing the treatment of gender issues in the new constitution.
  752. Find this resource:
  753. Fernández, Sujatha. “Barrio Women and Popular Politics in Chávez’s Venezuela.” Latin American Politics and Society 49 (Fall 2007): 97–127.
  754. DOI: 10.1353/lap.2007.0031Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  755. Based on a long residency in the Caracas barrios, Fernández says that government-mounted missions and community movements have encouraged the emergence of women’s leadership and also put into question traditional relations between men and women. This experience has also encouraged collectivization of heretofore “private” tasks in the household and community.
  756. Find this resource:
  757. Friedman, Elisabeth J. Unfinished Transitions: Women and the Gendered Development of Democracy in Venezuela. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000.
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  759. Women were deeply involved in resistance to the dictatorship that preceded the transition to Venezuela’s “pacted” democracy of 1958 to 1998, but they had to struggle throughout the Punto Fijo era since that time to seek inclusion and rights. Besides providing a useful benchmark for evaluating the later transition to Chavismo, Friedman’s research can viewed as a case study of the politics of exclusion in modern Venezuela.
  760. Find this resource:
  761. Rakowski, Cathy A., and Giocanda Espina. “Advancing Women’s Rights from Inside and Outside the Bolivarian Revolution, 1998–2010.” In The Revolution in Venezuela: Social and Political Change under Chávez. Edited by Thomas Ponniah and Jonathan Eastwood, 155–192. Cambridge, MA: David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University, 2011.
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  763. Balanced look at the Bolivarian record on women’s issues and rights. The authors see some achievements but find a gap between ideals and results. Achievements include a constitution in gender-neutral language and financial institutions to encourage women’s economic initiatives; shortcomings include failure to expand social security to homemakers (implemented in 2012), to curtail violence against women, and to expand reproductive rights.
  764. Find this resource:
  765. Afro- and Indigenous Venezuela
  766.  
  767. There are many anthropological studies of Venezuela’s indigenous peoples, but few look closely at their relationship to the Bolivarian Revolution. Van Cott 2003 provides an overall assessment of the gains and challenges facing indigenous peoples, as does Center for International Development and Conflict Management 2006. Afro-Venezuelans fare similarly. García 2005 and Guerrero 2009 are both written by activists who credit the Bolivarian regime for its progress but see much to be done; both also make arguments for their cause by highlighting the contribution of Afro-Venezuelans to the struggle for independence from Spain. Goumbri 2005 includes several similar articles.
  768.  
  769. Center for International Development and Conflict Management. Assessment for Indigenous Peoples of Venezuela. Minorities at Risk Project, 2006.
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  771. Indigenous peoples still have issues and often publicly demonstrate to achieve full realization of the gains achieved in the 1999 constitution, but they continue to support the Chávez government.
  772. Find this resource:
  773. García, Jesús. Afrovenezolanidad e inclusión en el proceso bolivariano venezolano. Caracas: Ministerio de Comunicación e Información, 2005.
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  775. Links social exclusion to the heritage of slavery, has a historical take on European immigration for purposes of modernization, and looks at discrimination against women and indigenous peoples (i.e., not only against Afro-Venezuelans). Praises government policies but calls for implementation of a plan of action to rectify exclusion and explicitly recognize Afro-Venezuelan culture and needs.
  776. Find this resource:
  777. Goumbri, Olivia Burlingame, ed. The Venezuela Reader: The Building of a People’s Democracy. Washington, DC: Epica, 2005.
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  779. Collection of articles intended to “serve as an alternative voice to the oftentimes biased and one-sided US media.” Included here because it includes several articles by grassroots Venezuelans who express their hopes and assessment of the Bolivarian Revolution in the immediate aftermath of Chávez’s victory in the 2004 recall referendum.
  780. Find this resource:
  781. Guerrero, Jorge. La Presencia Africana en Venezuela. Caracas: Fundación Editorial El Perro y La Rana, 2009.
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  783. A general introduction to the history and influence of Afro-Venezuelans, including the origins and influence of revolts of enslaved peoples on the independence movement. With emphasis upon the culture and historical role played by Afro-Venezuelans in the Aragua state.
  784. Find this resource:
  785. Van Cott, Donna Lee. “Andean Indigenous Movements and Constitutional Transformation: Venezuela in Comparative Perspective.” Latin American Perspectives 30 (January–February 2003): 49–70.
  786. DOI: 10.1177/0094582X02239144Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  787. As a relatively small percentage of the population and geographically dispersed, Venezuela’s indigenous movement attained significant gains in the 1999 constitution because of their ability to take advantage of opportunities offered by the political crisis and transition.
  788. Find this resource:
  789. Labor, Cooperatives, Micro-enterprises
  790.  
  791. Perhaps no sector is more traditionally aligned with the left than the labor movement. Early in the Chávez era the problem for Bolivarianism was the historical control exercised by Democratic Action (AD) over the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV), by far the most important labor organization. The CTV involvement in the April 2002 coup and its support for the oil industry shutdown of December 2002 severely eroded worker loyalty to the CTV, but this did not mean that the new Bolivarian union movement was united behind government programs. Ellner 2005 provides a good overview of the key issues and factional history. Iranzo and Richter 2005, in contrast to Ellner, sees government manipulation behind the decline of the CTV. Lucena, et al. 2007 and Machado M. 2008 explore a key area of tension between organized labor and the popular movement: the issue of the role of cooperatives and micro-enterprises. Many union leaders feel that government-supported cooperatives and micro-enterprises are being used to weaken unions. Planes 2003 questions whether government support for these sectors is consistent with socialism. Martínez 2006 sees some success in micro-credit programs, which he attributes to training programs that should be implemented in other programs.
  792.  
  793. Ellner, Steve. “The Venezuelan Labor Movement under Chávez: Autonomous Branch of Civil Society or Instrument of Political Control.” A Contra Corriente 2 (Spring 2005): 102–125.
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  795. The Bolivarian labor movement is politically aligned but divided into factions. Although leaders of the Bolivarian labor movement broke away from the old Confederation of Venezuela (CTV), they are wary of co-optation by the government. The CTV’s cooperation with management in shutting down the oil industry for three months in 2002–2003 persuaded most labor leaders to align with Chavismo.
  796. Find this resource:
  797. Iranzo, Consuelo, and Jacqueline Richter. “La relación Estado/sindicatos en Venezuela (1999–2005).” In Venezuela, visión plural: Una mirada desde el CENDES. Vol. 2. Edited by Sergio Aranda, 653–684. Caracas: BID, 2005.
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  799. The authors acknowledge and demonstrate the widely accepted view that Venezuelan unions have long been subordinated to party control. They argue that the unions have been further weakened in their ability to defend worker rights by the maneuvers of the Chávez government to wrest control from the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers, which remained tied to the leadership of the parties that were part of the old Punto Fijo system.
  800. Find this resource:
  801. Lucena, Héctor, Nelson Fréitez, and Aymara Hernández. Cooperativas, empresas, estado y sindicatos una vinculación necesaria. Barquisimeto, Venezuela: Universidad Centroccidenal Lisandro Alvadado Fondo Editoral, 2007.
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  803. A variety of perspectives from a conference on cooperatives and labor unions. Some sectors of labor, including some Chavistas, have accused the state oil company and others of circumventing unions by subcontracting to cooperatives subsidized by the state’s “endogenous development” policies. Includes some useful data, for example, on the numbers of people enrolled in missions connected to the cooperative movement.
  804. Find this resource:
  805. Machado M., Jesús E. Estudio sobre Cooperativos en Cuatro Estados de Venezuela. Caracas: Centro Gumilla, 2008.
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  807. This study of cooperatives in four states gives mixed reviews to the process. A massive explosion in the number of co-ops took place between 2001 and 2008 due to a government initiative. A substantial number were successful, but there are problems in terms of accountability and sustainability. The goal of the Bolivarian Revolution is to create a solidarity-driven, less-competitive economy, but most cooperatives were formed with the goal of securing profit for the founders.
  808. Find this resource:
  809. Martínez, Alberto. “Microcrédito y pobreza en Venezuela: Un caso de studio.” Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales 48 (September–December 2006): 95–112.
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  811. An optimistic report on the government’s Project for Development of Poor Rural Communities. Highlights the positive impact of the focus on training and self-help and recommends that they be implemented in programs judged less successful: such as the Banco de la Mujer, in which beneficiaries receive money but not training and are not asked to reinvest profits.
  812. Find this resource:
  813. Planes, Enrique Vila. “La economía social en el proyecto Bolivariano: Ideas controversiales.” Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales 9.3 (2003): 111–143.
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  815. Contends that the “social economy,” a sector made up of cooperatives and other alternative micro-economic projects, is not really socialist but community-based capitalism. The government hopes to improve productivity and integrate it into a macro economy dominated by state and private capital. To succeed will require support; but to encourage autonomy for the subsidized cooperatives will be an exceedingly difficult task.
  816. Find this resource:
  817. Movement Politics
  818.  
  819. Venezuela’s Bolivarian Constitution defines the republic as a participatory democracy that encourages the people to assume a “protagonistic” role in governance and policy. This attempt to redefine or transcend representative democracy is largely an outgrowth of demands by social movements. The conception of a popular democracy embodied in Bolivarian socialism is what gives it an appeal to many movements throughout the hemisphere. The extent to which reality measures up to movement aspirations, on the other hand, is yet another contested area. No study in this section argues that the constitution has been fully implemented or that social movements have maintained their autonomy from the petro-state. However, there are significant differences when it comes to the meaning of the experience so far. Furthermore, there is a further divide between analysts that define civil society consistent with liberal conceptions and those who question whether this framework is built to judge any structural or financial support from the state as compromising autonomy. (Several works cited under Populism and Chavismo are also relevant to the issues examined by works cited in this section.)
  820.  
  821. Social Movements
  822.  
  823. Fernández 2010 offers anthropological fieldwork with a hopeful view of the relationship between social movements and the state, as the author describes grassroots social change in the barrios. Hellinger 2006 argues that racial and cultural identity has been underestimated as a source of Chavista support. Smilde 2004 shows that evangelicals, contrary perhaps to expectation, were drawn to Chavismo. Smilde and Hellinger 2011 looks at grassroots political participation across a broad spectrum of politics, both in everyday life and in more conventional arenas. Machado M. 2008b shows that poor youth remain one of the most “excluded” of social sectors, though it does not evaluate the success or failure of Bolivarian social policies. Machado M. 2008a is a study of communal councils and offers a rare examination of these grassroots organizations often cited by supporters of the Bolivarian Revolution as the vehicles for the creation of “21st-century socialism” and a “communal state.”
  824.  
  825. Fernández, Sujatha. Who Can Stop the Drums? Urban Social Movements in Chávez’s Venezuela. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.
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  827. Besides expanding on the theme in Fernández 2007 (cited under Women), this book puts the conflicts and movements of the barrios, too often thought to have begun with Chávez’s 1998 election, in the context of a much longer history of organizing and struggles in poor urban neighborhoods.
  828. Find this resource:
  829. Hellinger, Daniel. “Tercermundismo y Chavismo.” Stockholm Review of Latin American Studies 1 (November 2006): 4–17.
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  831. Argues that the appeal of Chávez goes beyond class and partisanship to identity politics, especially to those pardos (mixed-race Venezuelans) who see Chávez as their president, i.e., not identifiable with the rule by the Creole elite, regardless of whether they approve or disapprove of his performance as president. Originally published in 2003.
  832. Find this resource:
  833. Machado M., Jesús E. Estudio de Los Consejos Comunales. Caracas: Centro Gumilla, 2008a.
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  835. A survey of participants in the Communal Councils, based on a national sample carried out by a Jesuit think tank, finds that for the most part those involved have experienced a significant increase in their sense of efficacy and ability. If the state does not co-opt them, the councils have the potential to significantly improve the civic culture.
  836. Find this resource:
  837. Machado M., Jesús E. Exclusión de los Jóvenes en Venezuela. Caracas: Centro Gumilla, 2008b.
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  839. Although largely focused on social exclusion, this study of the factors contributing to social exclusion among young people is politically relevant because of the putative goals of the Bolivarian Revolution to eliminate this phenomenon. Notable is the finding that most young Venezuelans want to participate politically but tend to exclude members of the opposite political camp from their activities.
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  841. Smilde, David. “Los Evangélicos y La Polarización: La Moralización de la Política y la Politización de la Religión.” Revista Venezolana de Economía y Ciencias Sociales 10.2 (May–August 2004): 163–179.
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  843. One might expect evangelical leaders and voters to have rejected Chávez because of his leftist political orientation, but Smilde demonstrates that the situation is much more complex. This is due in part to conflicts between the institutional Catholic Church and the evangelical movement. Chávez’s style and rhetoric appeal to evangelical religious values and the political ambitions of well-known evangelical pastors.
  844. Find this resource:
  845. Smilde, David, and Daniel Hellinger, eds. Venezuela’s Bolivarian Democracy: Participation, Politics and Culture under Chávez. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011.
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  847. Examines political participation in various forms, including some unconventional sites of political activism (e.g., poetry circles, television programming). Contributions include studies of racial politics, evangelical religious movements, grassroots organizations and leaders, patronage politics, women’s literature groups, politics of soap operas, community media, Internet debate, and historical struggles in a major Caracas barrio.
  848. Find this resource:
  849. Movements, Clientelism, Hierarchy
  850.  
  851. Is it possible for grassroots organizations to reconcile their reliance on the state with their desire for autonomy? Hawkins and Hansen 2006 argues that the neighborhood associations that arose in defense of the Chávez regime in the early years were deeply compromised by clientelism. García-Guadilla 2007 provides more nuance, arguing that grassroots organizations linked to Chavismo tended to subordinate political goals to organizational ones during electoral campaigns and times of crisis but to reassert their commitment to prioritizing community goals during intervening periods. Spanakos 2011 sees executive domination threatening to displace autonomous participation, but this article is valuable for shedding light on the changing sense of “public” among Chávez’s opponents. Uzcategui 2010 expresses pessimism about movement autonomy from a mutualist anarchist perspective. Schiller 2011 is more optimistic in examining one of Venezuela’s more successful democratic innovations: the spread of community-based media. Like García-Guadilla, Schiller finds activists wrestling to reconcile their desire for autonomy with the need for resources provided by the state.
  852.  
  853. García-Guadilla, María Pilar. “Ciudadanía y autonomía en las organizaciones sociales bolivarianas: Los Comité de Tierra Urbana como movimientos socialies.” Cuadernos de Cendes 24 (September–December 2007): 47–73.
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  855. In addition to addressing the tension between autonomy and clientelism within the Chavista social programs, this article is valuable for outlining one of the lesser-known but most innovative government programs: urban land reform, which involved popular participation in documenting the history and uses of land in urban neighborhoods as a prerequisite for registering ownership of parcels.
  856. Find this resource:
  857. Hawkins, Kirk A., and David R. Hansen. “Dependent Civil Society: The Circulos Bolivarianos en Venezuela.” Latin American Research Review 41.1 (2006): 102–132.
  858. DOI: 10.1353/lar.2006.0008Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  859. Based on survey research in Caracas barrios, the authors contend that although members of the Bolivarian Circles, at the time the most important grassroots organizations, associated with Chavismo and professed democratic goals, they also displayed political attitudes that suggested deeply ingrained clientelism and personalism.
  860. Find this resource:
  861. Schiller, Naomi. “Catia Sees You: Community Television, Clientelism, and Participatory Statemaking in the Chávez Era.” In Venezuela’s Bolivarian Democracy: Participation, Politics, and Culture under Chávez. Edited by David Smilde and Daniel Hellinger, 105–132. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011.
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  863. Grassroots journalists not only find themselves at odds with the opposition-controlled private media but also at times with the official government media as they strive to maintain their priorities in serving their own communities.
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  865. Spanakos, Anthony Peter. “Citizen Chávez: The State, Social Movements, and Publics.” Latin American Perspectives 176 (January 2011): 5–13.
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  867. Chávez has used the power of government to infuse supporters with a sense of citizenship, but he has also created a “counter-public” of those excluded from this project by his rhetoric. His actions and words have encouraged a fusing of “micro-publics” on both sides. Chávez’s use of power in this way means that the focus will continue to be on control over government, not on the idea promoted by many social movements’ priorities.
  868. Find this resource:
  869. Uzcategui, Rafael. Venezuela: Revolution as Spectacle. Translated by Chaz Bufe. Tucson, AZ: Sharp, 2010.
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  871. Venezuela remains a democracy, but Chávez’s revolutionary rhetoric masks an old- fashioned populism and leaves the country subservient to the US and multinational corporations. This thesis has been widely challenged, but this book’s value is in its detailing of the dissatisfaction of many environmental, social, and labor organizations, raising questions about how much the Bolivarian Revolution has empowered social movements.
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  873. Elections
  874.  
  875. The legitimacy of the Chávez government, both domestically and abroad, depends to a significant extent on the claim of the president to have won free and fair elections. In addition, elections offer the opportunity to assess the balance of power between the opposition and government and to analyze the degree to which each side is supported by different social sectors. The overwhelming majority of analyses see a pattern of class polarization. This includes Canache 2004, Cannon 2008, Hellinger 2005, and Molina and Pérez Babot 2004. Lupu 2010 is an exception; most academic specialists in this field disagree with his conclusions. Carter Center 2005 is the best examination of the fairness of the 2004 recall election, which was a key event. Ojo Electoral 2007 assesses the fairness of the 2006 presidential election. Gates 2010 presents a different approach—a study showing a complex relationship between business and the Chávez campaign in 1998.
  876.  
  877. Canache, Damarys. “Urban and Political Order.” In The Unraveling of Representative Democracy in Venezuela. Edited by Jennifer L. McCoy and David Myers, 33–49. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.
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  879. Public opinion data are analyzed to demonstrate the increasing frustration with existing parties and frustration with economic conditions. Data on voting intentions in 1998 show the urban poor moderately more likely to vote for Chávez.
  880. Find this resource:
  881. Cannon, Barry. “Class/Race Polarisation in Venezuela and the Electoral Success of Hugo Chávez: A Break with the Past or the Song Remains the Same?” Third World Quarterly 29.4 (2008): 731–748.
  882. DOI: 10.1080/01436590802075020Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  883. Polling data show that voting patterns are highly skewed by class, argues Cannon. Only by placing these patterns in the context of the historical framework of race in Venezuela can we truly understand the underlying dynamic, which reflects not only class differences but also the cultural divide between the wealthy and the masses.
  884. Find this resource:
  885. Carter Center. Observing the Venezuela Presidential Recall Referendum. Atlanta: Carter Center, Emory University, 2005.
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  887. The Carter Center not only observed the August 2004 referendum, it also mediated the conflict between the government and the opposition, closely observing the judicial process and the work of the National Election Commission. While most parts of the opposition acknowledged the Chávez victory, some smaller groups and pro-opposition intellectuals questioned the results. The Carter Center report rebuts most of the criticism.
  888. Find this resource:
  889. Gates, Leslie C. Electing Chávez: the Business of Anti-neoliberal Politics in Venezuela. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010.
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  891. Gates uses some innovative analytical techniques to show that the Chávez campaign attracted some significant support from an unexpected quarter: these were business interests fearful of (1) the consequences of public anger over multiple high-profile scandals and (2) isolating themselves entirely from the oil rents distributed by the state. Fascinating case study of business-state relations in Latin America.
  892. Find this resource:
  893. Hellinger, Daniel. “When ‘No’ Means ‘Yes’ to Revolution: Electoral Politics in Bolivarian Venezuela.” Latin American Perspectives 32.3 (May 2005): 8–32.
  894. DOI: 10.1177/0094582X05275530Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  895. Ecological analysis of the 2004 referendum shows that the vote was highly class polarized. Also discusses tensions between grassroots Chavistas and professional politicians and exposes weaknesses in Chavista electoral support in the local elections, even though they easily defeated the divided and dispirited opposition.
  896. Find this resource:
  897. Lupu, Noam. “Who Votes for Chavismo? Class Voting in Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela.” Latin American Research Review 45.1 (2010): 7–32.
  898. DOI: 10.1353/lar.0.0083Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  899. Lupu maintains, in the most prestigious journal for Latin American studies, that Venezuela’s electorate was highly class polarized in the 1998 presidential election but became noticeably less so over the subsequent decade. This is a decidedly minority viewpoint, sustained by methodological choices open to question: for example, counting abstentions as votes against Chavismo.
  900. Find this resource:
  901. Molina, José Enrique, and Carmén Pérez Babot. “Radical Change at the Ballot Box: Causes and Consequences of Electoral Behavior in Venezuela’s 2000 Election.” Latin American Politics and Society 46.1 (2004): 103–134.
  902. DOI: 10.1353/lap.2004.0008Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  903. The collapse of the party system of the Punto Fijo era is the result of a de-alignment of partisan preferences. More so than in 1998, the 2000 elections were based more on personality and issues. Although the lower classes tended to support Chávez, pre-election surveys suggest that he carried all social classes.
  904. Find this resource:
  905. Ojo Electoral. Informe Final de la Observación Electoral de las Elecciones presidenciales de 2006. Caracas: Ojo Electoral, 2007.
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  907. Independent Venezuelan organization that regularly monitored campaigns and elections until 2010, when it ceased operation. Provides the most objective and complete assessments of the transparency and fairness of elections until that time. Ojo has found the balloting itself to be fair but gives very mixed evaluations in regard to the conduct of campaigns. The 2006 report is cited here.
  908. Find this resource:
  909. Polarization and Conflict
  910.  
  911. Venezuelan political life under Chávez has been extraordinarily polarized. As noted previously, the polarization is reflected in the academy as well. The sources in this section are cited not for their broad representation of political perspectives as much for the insights they provide into the impact of polarization on actors, including the media, and into key moments of crisis. Bisbal 2007 and Brito García 2003 uncover polarization in the media, which not only reflected this polarization but contributes to it. Duno-Gottberg 2009 illustrates the influence of racial stereotyping in mainstream media, both in the private opposition and pro-Chávez state media. Castro 2007 can be utilized as a secondary source on social, economic, and political conditions but also reflects the disparate views among Venezuelan public intellectuals. García-Guadilla 2007 looks at the impact of polarization on grassroots social organizations. The supreme period of polarization took place between the period just before and after the forty-eight-hour coup of April 2002. La Fuente and Meza 2004 and Villegas 2009 both offer journalistic analysis of the coup’s origins and course: the former more from the opposition view, the latter from the Chavista view. Sanz 2003 gives a pro-Chávez interpretation of the early and intense years of polarization (Ellner and Hellinger 2003, cited under the Chávez Era, provides analysis of these early years). Nelson 2009 is more careful in drawing conclusions but argues that US support (if not complicity) in the forty-eight-hour coup against Chávez in 2002 was the turning point in US-Venezuelan relations. Yanes 2004 (cited under The Struggle to Control Oil Policy) was published by PDVSA after the government’s defeat of the work stoppage of 2002–2003 and the firing of 20,000 professional and managerial employees. Obviously it takes the side of the Chávez government, but it nonetheless provides the only extensive account of the conflict within the company and the role of the thousands of workers who sided with the Chavistas in the conflict.
  912.  
  913. Bisbal, Marcelino. “Los medios en Venezuela ¿Dónde estamos?” Espcaio Abierto 16 (October–December 2007): 643–668.
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  915. Although the government abuses the state broadcasting media, its access to private media, and its regulatory powers, Chavismo has not established hegemony in the media, as demonstrated by such measures as audience share and concentrated ownership. The rise of cable and Internet communications and the spread of community radio and newspapers add complexity to Venezuela’s media scene.
  916. Find this resource:
  917. Brito García, Luis. Venezuela: Investigación de unos medios por encima de toda sospecha. Caracas: Fondo Editorial Question, 2003
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  919. The author, a journalist and social scientist, details the role of the private media in the 2002 coup and concludes that they stepped into the vacuum created by the collapse of political parties opposed to Chávez.
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  921. Castro, Gregorio, ed. Debate por Venezuela. Papers presened at “Diálogo, debate, y reflexión a favor de Venezuela,” conducted between April and June 2007, at Universidad Central de Venezuela. Caracas: Editorial Alfa, FACES UCV, 2007.
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  923. The proceedings of a conference offering highly conflicting viewpoints (though less polemical than usual) on the Venezuelan process under Chávez, including several themes relevant to the economic prospects. Most participants are well-known public intellectuals with academic credentials; but they are also prominent protagonists in the unfolding process being analyzed.
  924. Find this resource:
  925. Corrales, Javier, and Michael Penfold. Dragon in the Tropics: Hugo Chávez and the Political Economy of Revolution in Venezuela. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2011.
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  927. The authors maintain that Chávez has deliberately fomented extremism, polarization, and confrontation. The tone and substance are highly polemical at times; Corrales has harshly criticized the Venezuelan president in several articles intended for a general audience. However, the authors usefully analyze alternative paths and the possibilities for a moderate opposition to emerge.
  928. Find this resource:
  929. Duno-Gottberg, Luis. “Social Images of Anti-apocalypse: Bikers and the Representation of Popular Politics in Venezuela.” A Contra Corriente 6.2 (Winter 2009): 144–172.
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  931. Bikers in urban Caracas barrios that are pro-Chávez strongholds have self-organized into “defense squads,” often characterized as “mobs” in the mainstream media. A valuable case study of the way that class and racial factors influence both politics and perceptions of politics in Venezuela.
  932. Find this resource:
  933. García-Guadilla, María Pilar. “Social Movements in a Polarized Setting: Myths of Venezuela Civil-Society.” In Venezuela: Hugo Chávez and the Decline of an “Exceptional Democracy.” Edited by Steve Ellner and Miguel Tinker Salas, 140–154. Latham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.
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  935. Garciá-Guadilla never reduces the state’s relationship to social movements and organizations to autonomy versus co-optation and control. She defines a problematic, dynamic relationship between the petro-state and civil society. Polarization has compromised the autonomy of social organization at times of crisis and in electoral cycles, but movements often reassert their autonomy and resist being captive of the state and parties.
  936. Find this resource:
  937. La Fuente, Sandra, and Alfredo Meza. El acertijo de Abril: Relato periodístico de la breve caída de Hugo Chávez. Caracas: Debate, 2004.
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  939. An account of the forty-eight-hour coup against Chávez in April 2002. Somewhat slanted against Chávez but careful about what is known and unknown. Includes an appendix with primary documents reflecting views and divisions within the opposition. Useful paired with Villegas 2009, pro-Chávez but similarly careful about separating fact from supposition.
  940. Find this resource:
  941. Nelson, Brian. The Silence and the Scorpion: The Coup against Chávez and the Making of Modern Venezuela. New York: Nation Books, 2009.
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  943. From this publisher, one would expect the account of the April 2002 coup to be biased toward Chavismo. However, the account relies heavily upon the firsthand accounts of opposition figures from the military and civilian sectors. Though thus slanted, Nelson usefully documents internal disagreements that weakened the resolve of some sectors that participated in or endorsed the coup.
  944. Find this resource:
  945. Sanz, Rodolfo. Dialéctica de una Victoria. Los Teques, Venezuela: Editorial Nuevo Pensamiento Crítico, 2003.
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  947. An account of the early years of conflict by an Argentine humanist Marxist who would later become deeply embroiled in controversy for attempting to implement worker co-management in ALCASA, a large state-owned aluminum factory.
  948. Find this resource:
  949. Villegas, Ernesto. Abril golpe adentro. Caracas: Editorial Galac, 2009.
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  951. Several issues surrounding the forty-eight-hour overthrow coup of April 2002 will probably never be resolved, including the discovery of who was responsible for sniper fire that killed dozens of people on both sides. Villegas offers a professional journalist’s investigation into the issues, favorable to Chávez but judicious in drawing conclusions. Usefully paired with La Fuente and Meza 2004, which leans toward the opposition.
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  953. Popular Analysis and Debate
  954.  
  955. The sources included in this section are mainly primary sources, useful for contemporary and historical data on the debate over Chavismo, socialism, and Bolivarianism. They are divided into Pro-Chávez, Anti-Chávez, and (using the popular expression for those insisting on their neutrality) the “Ní-Ní” (“Neither-Nor”). One should not assume that “neutral” means more accurate or objective; however, in highly polarized Venezuela these latter categories tend to draw readers across the ideological spectrum.
  956.  
  957. Pro-Chávez
  958.  
  959. Although the majority of its postings are uncritically pro-Chávez and polemical, Aporrea is a remarkable site for wide-ranging debate within the Chavista movement. Diario Vea is a newspaper aimed at a popular audience, while Corriente del Orinoco aims more for an international audience. Venezuelanalysis is an English-language site that provides a useful alternative to international media coverage biased against Chávez, but it also promotes considerable debate about the direction of the Bolivarian Revolution.
  960.  
  961. Aporrea
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  963. Part blog, part news agency, this is a forum especially useful for its rich debate on Chavismo and social movement politics.
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  965. Como te iba contando
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  967. A humorous blog that often aims its satire at the government as well as the opposition.
  968. Find this resource:
  969. Correo del Orinoco.
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  971. Government-owned daily news site. Carries “Líneas de Chávez” (Lines from Chávez) regularly.
  972. Find this resource:
  973. Diario Vea.
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  975. Strongly allied with government, though sometimes critical from a left perspective. This Caracas daily news source often takes aim at government officials, but not Chávez himself.
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  977. Nicmer Evans (Oficial): Reflexiones y propuestas
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  979. Commentary by a political scientist at the Central University, who is also host of a widely heard interview program on the radio.
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  981. Venezuelanalysis.
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  983. An English-language news and analysis site, with both original and reproduced content, generally sympathetic to the Bolivarian project but also includes debate from a left perspective.
  984. Find this resource:
  985. Anti-Chávez
  986.  
  987. In the Punto Fijo era El Nacional and El Universal were the two newspapers of record. Both turned harshly anti-Chávez in the period between 2001 and 2004. The former remains so, the latter has somewhat moderated its tone and regained some professional stature, though its orientation remains unmistakable. Tal Cual is another opposition print source but more of a journal of opinion. VCRISIS, besides criticism of Chávez, provides a forum for debate within the opposition. Veneconomía aims for a middle-class professional audience and specializes in economic analysis, though not exclusively.
  988.  
  989. El Nacional.
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  991. One of the two (the other being El Universal) daily newspapers of record in the Punto Fijo era, but even among the middle class and opposition, it has lost readership for its unremitting and extreme opposition to Chávez.
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  993. El Universal.
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  995. One of the two (along with El Nacional) daily newspapers of record in the Punto Fijo era. More oriented toward business and economic interests and more moderate than other papers associated with the opposition.
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  997. Tal Cual.
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  999. Opposition daily paper that places editorializing before reporting but also takes on what it regards as those who would take Venezuela back to the Punto Fijo era. Edited by Teodoro Petkoff, former guerrilla leader and founder of the Movimiento al Socialismo political party.
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  1001. VCRISIS.
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  1003. Opposition blog, more informative than most.
  1004. Find this resource:
  1005. Veneconomía.
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  1007. Clearly aligned with the opposition, but a useful source for business perspectives and mainstream economic analysis. Spanish language.
  1008. Find this resource:
  1009. “Ní-Ní” (“Neither-Nor”)
  1010.  
  1011. Depending on the positions taken on a particular issue, the following sources might be regarded as on the other side of the political divide by Chavismo or by the opposition. However, they are respected by many Venezuelans as less partisan and more objective: Panorama and Últimas Noticias often are regarded as such by the opposition. As El Nacional and El Universal (see under Anti-Chávez) adopted a more polemical tone, Últimas particularly benefited, becoming the largest circulation daily. Revista SIC probably carried the most insightful and balanced critique of the Punto Fjio era; its religious affiliation has hurt its standing in some quarters, but month to month it remains the best journal of social commentary. Venezuela Analytica tends toward the opposition and might be categorized as such, but it does carry some left-leaning analysis as well.
  1012.  
  1013. Panorama.
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  1015. Some perceive this daily news outlet to be pro-government, but others say it is neutral and more objective than most news sources.
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  1017. Revista SIC.
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  1019. Publication of the Jesuit think-tank, Centro Gumilla. Somewhat more partisan in recent years, but still carries some of the best investigations of the country’s social, economic, and political realities. Published monthly.
  1020. Find this resource:
  1021. Últimas Noticias.
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  1023. Although some regard this Caracas daily as aligned with Chávez, Últimas became the largest circulation daily with a large middle-class readership: this came about because of the open alignment of Nacional and Universal with the opposition during the tense period between 2002–2004. Probably the most objective of the dailies, Últimas carries important investigative reports embarrassing to the government; but as a tabloid, it is given more to news briefs than comprehensive reporting.
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  1025. Venezuela Analytica.
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  1027. A digest of news and analysis. Tends toward an opposing view of the government, but includes pro-government views as well.
  1028. Find this resource:
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