Unraveling of Representative Democracy in Venezuela

Jennifer L. McCoy is a professor of political science at Georgia State University and director of the Americas Program at the Carter Center. David J. Myers is a professor of political science at Pennsylvania State University.

• ForewordPreface and AcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroductionPart I: Antecedents: The Foundations of the Punto Fijo Regime of Representative DemocracyChapter 1. The Normalization of Punto Fijo DemocracyPart II: The Actors: Making Political DemandsChapter 2. Urban Poor and Political OrderChapter 3. The Military: From Marginalization to Center StageChapter 4. Entrepreneurs: Profits without Power?Chapter 5. Civil Society: Late BloomersChapter 6. Intellectuals: An Elite DividedChapter 7. The United States and Venezuela: From a Special Relationship to Wary NeighborsChapter 8. The Unraveling of Venezuela's Party System: From Party Rule to Personalistic Politics and DeinstitutionalizationPart III: Policy Making and Its ConsequencesChapter 9. Decentralization: Key to Understanding a Changing NationChapter 10. The Syndrome of Economic Decline and the Quest for ChangeChapter 11. Public Opinion, Political Socialization, and Regime StabilizationPart IV: ConclusionChapter 12. From Representative to Participatory Democracy? Regime Transformation in VenezuelaNotesGlossaryReferencesList of Contributors Index

The contributors to this edited volume show the negative political impact of an economy based on oil exports and dependent on the global price of oil. Choice 2005 This sobering postmortem reveals with depressing clarity the conditions that gave rise to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. -- Richard Feinberg Foreign Affairs 2005 Provides the best contextual understanding of Venezuelan politics, both today and in recent decades. -- Alan Siaroff Political Studies Review 2005 The breadth of the editors' approach is a welcome corrective to those works on Venezuela that focus almost exclusively on institutional arrangements including electoral systems and the rules governing executive power. -- Steve Ellner Journal of Latin American Studies 2005 This volume is a welcome addition to the rather thin body of scholarship on Venezuela. -- Matthew Soberg Shugart Perspectives on Politics 2005 An excellent edited volume that updates the literature on several aspects of Venezuela's political system. -- Kirk A. Hawkins Latin American Politics and Society 2006 Important book. -- Maxwell A. Cameron Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 2007