The Political Order in Venezuela at the End of the Century: From Decisional Inefficiency to Neopopulism

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the democratic crisis that has affected the Venezuela’s political system for a long time, as well as the emergence of the leadership of Hugo Chávez. Assuming that the sustainability of democratic regimes is determined primarily not by their economic performance but for the existence of institutionalized opportunities for participation, confrontation and opposition, it focalizes on the study of certain actors —expressed in part through political parties and party systems— ways of representation and expression of support and conflicting demands and ways of exercising domination in Venezuela. As a result of his investigation, the author arrives to the conclusion that what has emerged in Venezuela at the end of the century is a new democratic-based, but antiparty, populism.