Venezuela's Bolivarian Democracy
ISBN: 9780822394310
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / Duke University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Political participation; Representative government and representation; Democracy;
Venezuela's Bolivarian Democracy brings together a variety of perspectives on participation and democracy in Venezuela. An interdisciplinary group of contributors focuses on the everyday lives of Venezuelans, examining the forms of participation that have emerged in communal councils, cultural activities, blogs, community media, and several other forums. The essays validate many of the critiques of democracy under Chávez, as well as much of the praise. They show that while government corporatism and clientelism are constant threats, the forms of political and cultural participation discussed are creating new discourses, networks, and organizational spaces--for better and for worse. With open yet critical minds, the contributors seek to analyze Venezuela's Bolivarian democratic experience through empirical research. In doing so, they reveal a nuanced process, a richer and more complex one than is conveyed in international journalism and scholarship exclusively focused on the words and actions of Hugo Chávez. Contributors
Carolina Acosta-Alzuru
Julia Buxton
Luis Duno Gottberg
Sujatha Fernandes
María Pilar García-Guadilla
Kirk A. Hawkins
Daniel Hellinger
Michael E. Johnson
Luis E. Lander
Margarita López-Maya
Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols
Coraly Pagan
Guillermo Rosas
Naomi Schiller
David Smilde
Alejandro Velasco
David Smilde is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Georgia and the president of the Venezuelan Studies Section of the Latin American Studies Association. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal Qualitative Sociology and the author of Reason to Believe: Cultural Agency in Latin American Evangelicalism . Daniel Hellinger is Professor of Political Science at Webster University in St. Louis and the former president of the Venezuelan Studies Section. He is the author of Comparative Politics of Latin America: Democracy at Last? and a co-editor of Venezuelan Politics in the Chávez Era: Class, Polarization, and Conflict . | 
