Dinámica de la democratización en Venezuela

: 1958 – 2002 : un análisis crítico desde la perspectiva de la complejidad de la democracia

Abstract

This work uses the case study of the Venezuelan democratization process as the basis for the development of a critical analysis on the dynamics associated with democratization that took place in the country between 1958 and 2002. Between 1958 and 1968, this democratization dynamic included a phase of emergence and roots of democratic values in Venezuelan society, in which the political system developed sufficient merits to be considered, not only as exceptionalism in the context of Latin America, but also as an example of a successful democratization that It had gone through, hand in hand with its political leaders, all its processes, and also successfully faced various subversive movements that sought to reverse the democratization process. Between 1968 and 1989, this democratization dynamic was overwhelmed both by the exhaustion of the pactism instituted in 1958 with the Punto Fijo pact, and by the utilitarian use by the political leadership of the time, which was entrenched in the presidential partyarchy system. In 1989, the decline of democracy began with the emergence of a popular revolt known as the Caracazo, and from there, Venezuelan democracy entered a dynamic of gradual and continuous regression that culminated in 2002 with the establishment of a regime of democratic authoritarianism, or illiberal democracy, when the opposition, through its reluctance to participate the parliamentary elections of 2005, gave President Chávez all the power to legislate at his will and convenience. The dynamics that characterized the Venezuelan democratization process in the aforementioned periods is critically analyzed in this work, including the sub-dynamics developed in its main components: emergence, transition, consolidation and backsliding in order to highlight the intensity, magnitude, nature and depth of positive and negative feedbacks that affected democratic stability in Venezuela, making it advance firmly in some occasions and retreat without notice, and even deeply, in others. It also allows to establish the criteria to put in question the thesis of the Venezuelan democratic exceptionality in the period under study.

Date of Award	16 Apr 2021
Original language	Spanish
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Mónica Dias (Supervisor)