Abstract, Class Strategies in Chavista Venezuela: Pragmatic and Populist Policies in a Broader Context

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Class Strategies in Chavista Venezuela: Pragmatic and Populist Policies in a Broader Context

by Steve Ellner

The governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro responded to the opposition’s attempts at regime change by implementing pragmatic policies favoring businesspeople who refused to participate in destabilization actions, as well as populist social measures benefiting the nonprivileged. Both sets of policies have to be placed in political context. The characterization of allegedly pro-government businesspeople as a new ruling elite referred to as the boliburguesía fails to take into account the sharp tensions between them and the Chavista leadership. The primary importance of social programs in the Chavista political triumphs over an extended period of time and of the periodic initiatives that sparked life into individual programs implicitly rules out claims regarding the government’s failure to alleviate poverty or achieve other social objectives. The Chavista governments failed to take full advantage of favorable periods and junctures when the opposition was demoralized following defeats in order to correct the negative side effects of pragmatic and populist class policies, such as bureaucratization and crony capitalism.

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Abstract, ¿Por qué no les callan? Hugo Chávez’s Reelection and the Decline of Western Hegemony in the Americas

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¿Por qué no les callan?
Hugo Chávez’s Reelection and the Decline of Western Hegemony in the Americas
by Sean W. Burges, Tom Chodor, R. Guy Emerson


On October 7, 2012, Hugo Chávez was comfortably reelected president of Venezuela. Just days before the vote, the impression given by major international print media was that it would be close, an assessment that proved to be at best optimistic. Western media coverage of the election in Venezuela was designed to skew the result toward the opposition, and this effort singularly failed. The “propaganda model” advanced by Herman and Chomsky is now faltering in the Americas, and the region is acting in a manner that is increasingly free of influence from the United States. Venezuela thus stands as a case of the citizenry actively and independently asserting its political agency despite clear attempts to redirect its thinking and decision making.

Abstract, The Media and Power in Postliberal Venezuela The Legacy of Chávez for the Debate on Freedom of Expression

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The Media and Power in Postliberal Venezuela
The Legacy of Chávez for the Debate on Freedom of Expression
by Ewa Sapiezynska


Two narratives dominate the literature about the state of freedom of expression in postliberal Venezuela, and they have few points in common, since they depend on different conceptualizations of the notion of freedom of expression. While the traditional liberal narrative focuses on the negative freedom that prohibits state interference, the postliberal narrative is based on positive freedom that encompasses the collective right of self-realization, particularly for the previously marginalized. During the government of Hugo Chávez, the discourse of freedom of expression was renewed, placing it in the context of power relations, accentuating positive freedom, and emphasizing the role of the public and community media. The establishment of the international public channel TeleSUR has revived the 1970s debate about the right to communication and contributed to the creation of a new Latin American-ness.

Abstract, The Media and Power in Postliberal Venezuela The Legacy of Chávez for the Debate on Freedom of Expression

:::::: Abstract ::::::

The Media and Power in Postliberal Venezuela
The Legacy of Chávez for the Debate on Freedom of Expression
by Ewa Sapiezynska


Two narratives dominate the literature about the state of freedom of expression in postliberal Venezuela, and they have few points in common, since they depend on different conceptualizations of the notion of freedom of expression. While the traditional liberal narrative focuses on the negative freedom that prohibits state interference, the postliberal narrative is based on positive freedom that encompasses the collective right of self-realization, particularly for the previously marginalized. During the government of Hugo Chávez, the discourse of freedom of expression was renewed, placing it in the context of power relations, accentuating positive freedom, and emphasizing the role of the public and community media. The establishment of the international public channel TeleSUR has revived the 1970s debate about the right to communication and contributed to the creation of a new Latin American-ness.

Abstract, Contested Spaces The Communal Councils and Participatory Democracy in Chávez’s Venezuela

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Contested Spaces
The Communal Councils and Participatory Democracy in Chávez’s Venezuela
by Matt Wilde


Since their launch in 2006, the communal councils have been heralded as a significant step toward the establishment of a radical, participatory democracy in Venezuela. Ethnographic fieldwork carried out in a working-class barrio in Valencia, Venezuela’s third-largest city, shows that local residents perceive and make use of the communal councils in a variety of ways. Older women in particular have become central players in community political life as a result of the reforms, although the burdens they take on arguably reproduce patterns of gendered inequality. Some residents express suspicion of new community leaders, accusing them of corruption, and there are conflicting views of what participatory democracy actually means in practical terms. The communal councils should be understood as contested spaces, the ambiguities and conflicts within them reflecting broader tensions within the Bolivarian project as a whole.

New LAP Issue! The Legacy of Hugo Chávez

The Legacy of Hugo Chavez

by Daniel Hellinger and Anthony Petros Spanakos

Table of Contents

Following his death in March 2013, Hugo Chávez left a significant legacy, but one that is highly contested. It could hardly be any other way given the level of polarization in Venezuela and scholarship about Venezuela. Too often discussion of Chávez paints him and the political movement he led with little subtlety in Manichean or hagiographic terms. The purpose of this special issue is contribute to a better understanding of the possibilities and limits of the Bolivarian project, ranging from democratic innovations to economic experimentation, from alternative economic integration to the role of charisma in revolutionary politics. Contributions include analysis of what it means to be a citizen in a post-neoliberal democracy in Venezuela; the extent to which Chavismo achieved a real redistribution of socio-economic and political power in Venezuela; lessons for other countries dependent upon extraction; what sort of domestic political and economic institutional structures have been developed under Chávez’s government, and how these affect the question of succession and future governability; the sustainability of the Bolivarian project since the decline in oil prices; and the relationship of Venezuela with the United States and other Latin American countries.

Listen to the Podcast!

Tomas Ocampo, Outreach Coordinator for Latin American Perspectives, interviews issue editors Daniel Hellinger and Anthony Spanakos about LAP issue, "The Legacy of Hugo Chávez," published in January 2017. CLICK HERE to listen to the podcast! Podcast is also available in SPANISH! Listen here.  You can also listen to past podcasts by clicking here!

Abstract, Oil and the Chávez Legacy

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Oil and the Chávez Legacy
by Daniel Hellinger


In the final 15 years of the Punto Fijo era (1958–1998), as state institutions and socioeconomic conditions deteriorated, the executive class of Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. broke free from state control. In his 15 years as president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez reasserted the state’s control over the company and reestablished a fiscal regime that brought the country enormous financial benefits. It is a legacy, however, that has an uncertain future.

Abstract, From System Collapse to Chavista Hegemony The Party Question in Bolivarian Venezuela

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From System Collapse to Chavista Hegemony
The Party Question in Bolivarian Venezuela
by Gabriel Hetland                                                                 


During the 14 years Hugo Chávez was in office, Venezuela’s party system experienced a 180-degree shift. When Chávez was elected in 1998, Venezuela’s party system had collapsed because of a two-decade-long economic-cum-political crisis. His initial appeal was built, in large part, on his antiparty message, a stance that continued through the first half of his time in office. A series of factors, principally the need for a more cohesive organization to combat an intransigent opposition, led to the creation of the Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (United Socialist Party of Venezuela—PSUV) in 2007. The PSUV quickly became Venezuela’s largest party and the linchpin of a new hegemonic system. The contradictions of that system are manifested in the split between the PSUV’s right and left wings, and the hegemony of Chavismo is now in doubt.

Introduction, The Legacy of Hugo Chavez

:::::: Introduction ::::::

The Legacy of Hugo Chávez
Daniel Hellinger and Anthony Petros Spanakos                                                                 


In 1992, Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez failed to replace the beleaguered government of President Carlos Andrés Pérez but succeeded in capturing the hearts and imaginations of a broad swath of the Venezuelan population frustrated by a decade of economic crisis, shifts in the social contract, weakened institutionalized modes of representation, and the consequences of a neoliberal structural adjustment program. El pueblo (the people) found hope in the temerity of the coup attempt and Chávez’s famous “por ahora” (for now).

Book, "Past and Prospects of Imperial Geopolitics" by Francisco López Segrera

"Past and Prospects of Imperial Geopolitics" 
by Francisco López Segrera

Book Review of:
América Latina en la geopolítica imperial
by Atilio Borón
LUXEMBURG 2012
ISBN: 978-987-1709-19-9

Political Report #1096 Setting the Record Straight on Venezuela By Steve Ellner, Jacobin

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro next to a portrait of Hugo Chavez in February 2013. Jorge Silva / Reuters By Steve Ellner, Jacobin  Steve Ellner is also an LAP Editor

In many ways, Hugo Chávez's legacy is at stake on December 6. An opposition victory in Venezuela's National Assembly elections would undoubtedly fuel an anti-Chávez narrative that is both simplistic and deceptive, jeopardizing the deceased president's well-earned fame as a champion of the underprivileged.

Book, "Past and Prospects of Imperial Geopolitics" by Francisco López Segrera

"Past and Prospects of Imperial Geopolitics" 
by Francisco López Segrera

Book Review of:
América Latina en la geopolítica imperial
by Atilio Borón
LUXEMBURG 2012
ISBN: 978-987-1709-19-9

Reflections on the Cuban Revolution by Gary Prevost

Reflections on the Cuban Revolution 
by Gary Prevost
Gary Prevost has been Professor of Political Science at St. John’s University since 1977.

When I visited Cuba in the first few days of 1992, it was not clear that the revolution would survive. Food was in relatively short supply and electricity blackouts were common. Even long-time supporters of the revolution were pessimistic about the future. Everything that had been accomplished in its first 32 years seemed in jeopardy when the Soviet Union went out of existence at the end of 1991 and canceled most of its trade deals with Cuba. The country’s gross domestic product was in the process of shrinking by 50 percent. How did the Cuban Revolution survive that shock, and how is it now coping with the illness of Fidel Castro and the transfer of power to his brother, Raúl?

Reflections on the Cuban Revolution by Gary Prevost

Reflections on the Cuban Revolution

by Gary Prevost

Gary Prevost has been Professor of Political Science at St. John’s University since 1977.

When I visited Cuba in the first few days of 1992, it was not clear that the revolution would survive. Food was in relatively short supply and electricity blackouts were common. Even long-time supporters of the revolution were pessimistic about the future. Everything that had been accomplished in its first 32 years seemed in jeopardy when the Soviet Union went out of existence

at the end of 1991 and canceled most of its trade deals with Cuba. The country’s gross domestic product was in the process of shrinking by 50 percent.