Dismantling Democracy in Venezuela: The Chávez Authoritarian Experiment

ISBN-13: 9780521145572 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 434 str.

Allan Brewer-Caras

Opis

This book examines the process of dismantling the democratic institutions and protections in Venezuela under the Hugo Chavez regime. The actions of the Chavez government have influenced similar processes and undemocratic maneuverings in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Honduras. Since the election of Hugo Chavez as president of Venezuela in 1998, a sinister form of nationalistic authoritarianism has arisen at the expense of long-established democratic standards. During the past decade, the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution has been systematically attacked by all branches of the Chavez government, particularly by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, which has legitimized the Chavez-ordered constitutional violations. The Chavez regime has purposely defrauded the Constitution and severely restricted representative government, all in the name of a supposedly participatory democracy controlled by a popularly supported central government. This volume illustrates how an authoritarian, nondemocratic government has been established in Venezuela a government lacking all the essential elements of a true democracy as defined by the 2001 Inter-American Democratic Charter."

Spis treści

Part I. The Political Assault to State Powers through an Elected but Exclusionist Constituent Assembly and the Framework for Authoritarianism: 1. The 1999 constitution making process as an instrument for framing an authoritarian political regime; 2. The 1999 constitution: from an exclusionist constitution making process to its distorting implementation; 3. The endless and illegitimate transitory regime preventing the effective enforcement of the constitution; 4. The outcome: the consolidation of authoritarianism defrauding democracy; Part II. Institutional Developments for the Consolidation of Authoritarianism: 5. The reinforced centralization of the federation; 6. Powers' concentration and authoritarian government; 7. The catastrophic dependence and political subjection of the supreme tribunal of justice; 8. Statization, nationalization, expropriation and confiscation of private assets; Part III. The Constitutional Reforms Proposals Designed to Consolidate Authoritarianism: 9. The failed attempt to consolidate an authoritarian, socialist, centralized, repressive and militarist state in the constitution; 10. The alternate principle of government and the 2009 constitutional amendment on continuous reelection.