The Failure of Political Reform in Venezuela

The Failure of Political Reform in Venezuela PDF Author: Julia Buxton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000156613
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 163

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Book Description
This title was first published in 2001. The victory of former lieutenant colonel Hugo Chavez in the Venezuelan presidential elections of 1998 was criticized as a blow against the country's deep-seated democratic tradition. It is claimed that this simplistic argument fails to recognize the extent of democratic deterioration in the country and the limitations imposed by discredited political actors on a meaningful democratic reform process. The book aims to break new ground in providing unseen evidence of electoral fraud and offers a fresh perspective on the nature of democratic development.

The Failure of Political Reform in Venezuela

The Failure of Political Reform in Venezuela PDF Author: Julia Buxton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000156613
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 163

Get Book

Book Description
This title was first published in 2001. The victory of former lieutenant colonel Hugo Chavez in the Venezuelan presidential elections of 1998 was criticized as a blow against the country's deep-seated democratic tradition. It is claimed that this simplistic argument fails to recognize the extent of democratic deterioration in the country and the limitations imposed by discredited political actors on a meaningful democratic reform process. The book aims to break new ground in providing unseen evidence of electoral fraud and offers a fresh perspective on the nature of democratic development.

Venezuela Before Chávez

Venezuela Before Chávez PDF Author: Ricardo Hausmann
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271064641
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 549

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Book Description
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Venezuela had one of the poorest economies in Latin America, but by 1970 it had become the richest country in the region and one of the twenty richest countries in the world, ahead of countries such as Greece, Israel, and Spain. Between 1978 and 2001, however, Venezuela’s economy went sharply in reverse, with non-oil GDP declining by almost 19 percent and oil GDP by an astonishing 65 percent. What accounts for this drastic turnabout? The editors of Venezuela Before Chávez, who each played a policymaking role in the country’s economy during the past two decades, have brought together a group of economists and political scientists to examine systematically the impact of a wide range of factors affecting the economy’s collapse, from the cost of labor regulation and the development of financial markets to the weakening of democratic governance and the politics of decisions about industrial policy. Aside from the editors, the contributors are Omar Bello, Adriana Bermúdez, Matías Braun, Javier Corrales, Jonathan Di John, Rafael Di Tella, Javier Donna, Samuel Freije, Dan Levy, Robert MacCulloch, Osmel Manzano, Francisco Monaldi, María Antonia Moreno, Daniel Ortega, Michael Penfold, José Pineda, Lant Pritchett, Cameron A. Shelton, and Dean Yang.

The Price of Harmony

The Price of Harmony PDF Author: Margaret Esther Martin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ideology
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description


The Politics of Change in Venezuela

The Politics of Change in Venezuela PDF Author: Frank Bonilla
Publisher: Mit Press
ISBN: 9780262523691
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
The Failure of Elites is unique as an in-depth study of an operative elite in a country undergoing substantial modernizing change while experiencing profound conflict, including armed insurgency and terrorism. The book combines a historical account of elite succession with an analysis of the social characteristics of incumbent elites. In particular, it describes the rise to power of a middle-sector elite, its subsequent fragmentation and loss of impetus toward reform, as well as diminished contact with the Venezuelan people. The author explores in detail the career lines and private lives of the elite, the structure of intraelite communications, and the ideologies and behavior of men who hold power. Each of these perspectives builds on distinctive types of data and on novel techniques appropriate to the particular analysis.Bonilla's study includes an examination of the more reticent and inaccessible power wielders--the military, proscribed parties, and the United States Community--as well as an appraisal of elite capacity to meet challenges emerging in the current decade. On a broader basis, the book raises serious questions as to the ability of democratic, reform-minded elites in countries like Venezuela to bring about the profound transformation needed to free such nations from poverty and social inequality.

Party-System Collapse

Party-System Collapse PDF Author: Jason Seawright
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804783926
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Most party systems are relatively stable over time. Yet in the 1980s and 1990s, established party systems in Peru and Venezuela broke down, leading to the elections of outsider Alberto Fujimori and anti-party populist Hugo Chavez. Focusing on these two cases, this book explores the causes of systemic collapse. To date, scholars have pointed to economic crises, the rise of the informal economy, and the charisma and political brilliance of Fujimori and Chavez to explain the changes in Peru and Venezuela. This book uses economic data, surveys, and experiments to show that these explanations are incomplete. Political scientist Jason Seawright argues that party-system collapse is motivated fundamentally by voter anger at the traditional political parties, which is produced by corruption scandals and failures of representation. Integrating economic, organizational, and individual considerations, Seawright provides a new explanation and compelling new evidence to present a fuller picture of voters' decisions and actions in bringing about party-system collapse, and the rise of important outsider political leaders in South America.

Venezuela

Venezuela PDF Author: Mark P. Sullivan
Publisher: Nova Science Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
Under the populist rule of President Hugo Chávez, first elected in 1998 and most recently re-elected to a six-year term in December 2006, Venezuela has undergone enormous political changes, with a new constitution and unicameral legislature, and even a new name for the country, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. U.S. officials and human rights organisations have expressed concerns about the deterioration of democratic institutions and threats to freedom of expression under President Chávez, who has survived several attempts to remove him from power. The government has benefited from the rise in world oil prices, which has sparked an economic boom and allowed Chávez to increase expenditures on social programs associated with his populist agenda. Since he was re-elected, Chávez has announced new measures to move the country toward socialism. His May 2007 closure of a popular Venezuelan television station (RCTV) that was critical of the government sparked student-led protests and international condemnation. The Chávez government's proposed constitutional reforms, subject to a referendum scheduled for December 2, 2007, include many amendments that have been controversial, such as the removal of presidential term limits and the government's ability to suspend certain constitutional rights during a state of emergency. The United States traditionally has had close relations with Venezuela, the fourth major supplier of foreign oil to the United States, but there has been friction in relations with the Chávez government. U.S. officials have expressed concerns about President Chávez's military arms purchases, his relations with such countries as Cuba and Iran, his efforts to export his brand of populism to other Latin American countries, and concerns about the state of democracy.

Bankrupt Representation and Party System Collapse

Bankrupt Representation and Party System Collapse PDF Author: Jana Morgan
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271050624
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
"Explores the phenomenon of party system collapse through a detailed examination of Venezuela's traumatic party system decay, as well as a comparative analysis of collapse in Bolivia, Colombia, and Argentina and survival in Argentina, India, Uruguay, and Belgium"--Provided by publisher.

Party Systems in Latin America

Party Systems in Latin America PDF Author: Scott Mainwaring
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316814610
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 526

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Book Description
Based on contributions from leading scholars, this study generates a wealth of new empirical information about Latin American party systems. It also contributes richly to major theoretical and comparative debates about the effects of party systems on democratic politics, and about why some party systems are much more stable and predictable than others. Party Systems in Latin America builds on, challenges, and updates Mainwaring and Timothy Scully's seminal Building Democratic Institutions: Party Systems in Latin America (1995), which re-oriented the study of democratic party systems in the developing world. It is essential reading for scholars and students of comparative party systems, democracy, and Latin American politics. It shows that a stable and predictable party system facilitates important democratic processes and outcomes, but that building and maintaining such a party system has been the exception rather than the norm in contemporary Latin America.

Conflict and Political Change in Venezuela

Conflict and Political Change in Venezuela PDF Author: Daniel H. Levine
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400870046
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Venezuela has had a long and bloody history of military dictatorships. Yet, since 1958, it has developed one of the few effective, competitive democracies in Latin America. To explain this transformation Daniel H. Levine analyzes the development of modern mass-based political parties with pervasive organizations and commanding strong loyalties; the changing structure and content of social and political conflict; and the gradual emergence of common norms governing political behavior. This book does not pretend to be a general survey of Venezuelan politics. Rather, it is an attempt to understand, for both theoretical and practical purposes, the development of shared "rules of the game" for political action in a heterogeneous society. Once these norms are accepted by key elites, and then imposed on recalcitrant oppositions, they provide a means of controlling and managing political conflict without eliminating it. Mr. Levine's conclusions are based primarily on case studies of specific political conflicts. His study of conflicts over educational reform uncovers the conditions in which a traditional sector of society—Catholic groups and institutions—moved from violent, total opposition to the political system to a position of accommodation. In the second case study he examines the role of students in politics, with special reference to the integration of students in national patterns of conflict and opposition. Originally published in 1973. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Venezuela, ALBA, and the Limits of Postneoliberal Regionalism in Latin America and the Caribbean

Venezuela, ALBA, and the Limits of Postneoliberal Regionalism in Latin America and the Caribbean PDF Author: Asa K. Cusack
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349950033
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the implementation, functioning, and impact of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), cornerstone of Venezuelan foreign policy and standard-bearer of “postneoliberal” regionalism during the “Left Turn” in Latin America and the Caribbean (1998-2016). It reveals that cooperation via ALBA’s regionalised social missions, state multinationals, development bank, People’s Trade Agreement, SUCRE virtual currency, and Petrocaribe soft-loan scheme has often been hampered by complexity and conflict between the national political economies of Ecuador, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, and especially Venezuela. Shared commitments to endogenous development, autonomy within mutlipolarity, and novel sources of legitimacy are undermined by serious deficiencies in control and accountability, which stem largely from the defining influence of Venezuela’s dysfunctional economy and governance. This dual dependency on Venezuela leaves the future of ALBA hanging in the balance.