The Revolutionary Narrative of Chavismo

Abstract

The concept of “revolutionary narrative” aims to reveal the strong but subtle relation between the culture and beliefs of a nation and the deep social meaning that a revolutionary process is able to display. As Noel Parker said, the revolutionary narrative is a firmly rooted impulse in the human understanding of historical change in the modern world, as long as revolution is an essentially modern political phenomenon. This article represents an attempt to identify some among the main discursive/symbolic elements that would constitute the revolutionary narrative of Chavismo. The research is based upon the work previously made by many Venezuelan and foreign social scientists, but especially upon the findings of the authors. After the quantitative/qualitative analysis of several hundreds of Hugo Chávez’s speeches, it is possible to conclude that there is indeed a Chavista revolutionary narrative (not only a populist one), strongly orientated toward the social polarization of the Venezuelan population and deeply marked by premodern elements.