Date of Award
2005
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. Latin American Studies Program
Advisor(s)
Ben Fallaw
Second Advisor
Ariel Armony
Abstract
One definition of democratic participation is a process whereby citizens influence or control those who make major decisions affecting them. Throughout Venezuela’s history, citizens have suffered under governments that aimed to limit their participation in the state. This research argues that the current Chávez regime, though seeking to concentrate power for itself in the executive branch, has also forged a space for democratic participation through its Barrio Adentro program.
In its introductory chapter, this paper examines Venezuela’s political development through a comparative lens and aims to situate Barrio Adentro within the country’s unique history. First, it shows how the political models in Venezuela throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries compared to the generally prevailing governing strategies and movements in Latin America. Later, it explains how Barrio Adentro fits within the current regime that aims to strengthen executive dominance and democratic participation.
This research’s second chapter provides a more nuanced and isolated study of Venezuela’s history, culminating with Hugo Chávez’s rise to power. It demonstrates that the designs of the country’s political systems over time, crafted to limit citizen participation, caused a legitimacy crisis in the Venezuelan state. Ultimately, the breakdown of these political arrangements created the seemingly paradoxical conditions where a non-democratically inspired leader has created a system that emphasizes citizen participation.
In its third chapter, a close examination of Barrio Adentro provides an example of how the ideas of executive dominance and democratic participation are reshaping Venezuela. The program under case study, Barrio Adentro, brings Cuban doctors into Venezuela’s most marginalized communities and relies on community support to operate. Started at the national level as a presidential initiative, it attempts to replace the country’s collapsed health system with a flexible structure more finely attuned to citizens’ needs. In pursuit of this goal, however, it has displaced the traditional bureaucracy. It has also had to contend with citizen demands that are working to reshape the administration’s original blueprint.
The conclusion of this study highlights the parallels between Chávez’s “participatory democracy”, as seen through the program of Barrio Adentro, and past Venezuelan governments. It concedes that citizens opposed to Chávez may have little recourse for participation in his administration. But it also shows that Venezuelans assumed to be docile supporters of Chávez have influence over his administration. This provides some proof that within the executively-centered state there also exists a space for democratic participation.
Keywords
Barrio Adentro, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela, Executive Dominance, Latin America
Recommended Citation
Reyes, Gabriel, "The Continuous Struggle for Representation in the Venezuelan State" (2005). Honors Theses. Paper 1529.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/1529