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Rethinking Venezuelan Politics: Class, Conflict, and the Chávez Phenomenon

2009; Duke University Press; Volume: 89; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1215/00182168-2009-073

1527-1900

B. S. McBeth,

Politics and Society in Latin America

The current administration of Venezuelan president Hugo Rafael Chávez Frias is exceedingly difficult to analyze because of a lack of transparency and frequent changes in the policies he is pursuing. A further major obstacle in understanding chavismo is to distinguish between the hyperbole of the government and the socioeconomic reality. Coupled with a dearth of reliable socioeconomic indicators and public accounts of major institutions, this makes it almost impossible to reach some semblance of reality. Ellner’s latest book tries bravely to tackle this fast-moving and at times contradictory social experiment. The result is an unsatisfactory mélange of interesting snippets that are not fully developed.The first part of the book is a potted history of Venezuela’s political development since independence to the arrival of Chávez in power in 1999. This sets the background for the Chávez administration, which Ellner argues is the result of the socioeconomic and political tensions already present in the country. The Chávez presidency, then, is not a radical break from the previous political system, as many have argued, but a continuation of the same historical process that started after the fall of the Marcos Pérez Jiménez dictatorship in 1958 and the beginning of democracy in the country. The second part of the book is a discussion of the Chávez administration, with the primary aim of dispelling some of the misconceptions that currently bedevil the analysis of the period. The author argues that the mainstream interpretation of Venezuelan political development is influenced by the exceptionalism thesis, which analyzes the Chávez presidency from a personalist point of view and sees the country as exempt from the internecine struggles, acute class conflicts, and racial animosities that characterize other Latin American countries. Ellner opposes the established view that class mobility in Venezuela has minimized political claims, resulting in low levels of class-based politics with power concentrated in the presidency. But scant proof is given of the involvement in politics of such institutions as the country’s trade unions. The proportional representation system of voting in Venezuela is biased toward the presidency, because votes are cast not for individual candidates but for party slates, which are then awarded a share of seats in congress based on the percentage of votes received. This is a strong incentive for people to get their names on the winning slate. The work of Brian Crisp and others demonstrates that political institutions remained static in the 1980s because they were created in the 1960s to achieve a consensus in order to consolidate democracy, and hence were very centralized and inflexible. Consequently, the country’s evolving social and economic reality was not reflected in institutional change, with the result that presidential legitimacy declined. According to Ellner, institutionalist political scientists do not look at socioeconomic transformations. By minimizing the differences between Acción Democrática (AD) and Comité de Organización Política Electoral Independiente (COPEI) they tend to ignore important areas of conflict and struggle during the entire post-1958 period. The political reforms of the 1980s and 1990s set the stage for the changes promoted by Chávez. The author argues that the 1998 elections expressed a rejection of neoliberal policies first pursued by Carlos Andrés Pérez in his second presidency, rather than antiparty sentiment.The book is peppered with a number of acute observations and interpretations of the current Venezuelan political scene, which are all too brief and not fully developed. The author argues correctly that many analysts focus on Chávez’s personality and style, while ignoring issues of substance and the long-term implications of the changes instituted. The current ineffective opposition is explained by a lack of serious debate on the main issues affecting the country. The opposition’s shortcomings were clearly shown during the 2002 – 3 general strike in the strategy of getting rid of Chávez rather than focusing on socioeconomic issues. This allowed Chávez to consolidate power by increasing his hold over the armed forces and Petróleos de Venezuela S. A. (PDVSA). Moreover, Chávez’s policies and legislation show a certain consistency that is part of a steady radicalization process.One of the underlying themes of the book is that scholarly research on most of the country’s history is woefully inadequate. The author falls into the same trap by making a number of incorrect observations that detract from the overall argument. For instance, Ellner states that former president José Antonio Páez died one of the richest men in the country in 1873, but in fact he was almost a pauper, selling insurance in New York, when he died. The United States was not remotely involved in placing General Juan Vicente Gómez in power in 1908. The October 1945 military coup against Isaías Medina Angarita was not spearheaded by AD leaders; the military conspirators brought them in at the last minute as a counterbalance to the communists, who were seen as a rising force. A discussion of the role played by Cuba in the internal affairs of the country, which over the years has gained in importance, is a major omission. Although the author states that the book is based on economic issues, there is little evidence of this. While this book is an adequate introduction to what is happening in the country at the moment, a closer analysis of the achievements and contradictions of the Chávez administration would have been more useful than looking at the general history of the country.