Venezuela: Crowding the Opposition

Javier Corrales and Michael Penfold-Becerra wrote this week’s article, Venezuela: Crowding Out the Opposition. In it, they discuss Chavez’s continued and unnecessary push towards authoritarianism due to “elite intentions,” or the ideologies of elected politicians as well as their biased opinions of the preferences of larger constituencies (100). They argue that by Chavez having economic resources at his disposal coupled with weak check-and-balance institutions, he was able to rely on political strategies such as polarization to ensure and maintain his place in office. Discrimination in favor of Chavez supporters when filling government-controlled jobs weakened the horizontal accountability between legislators and offered opportunities to engage in corruption with impunity.

Throughout every election, the institutions and in turn opposition was stripped of their power making it a hopeless cause to continue resisting Chavez’s presidency. Through a combination of underfunding, cronyism, clientelism, pro-poor spending, and lack of accountability, Chavez was able to “box out” the opposition and bait the public into buying into his charismatic leadership. The effects of Chavez’s somewhat populist rule are still being felt today in Venezuela. The wealthy continue to thrive while the rest of the country suffers from immense inflation and a starving population. Even when presented with that harsh reality, there are still Chavez supporters that continue to support his successor, Maduro, despite protests and public demands for his resignation. Similar to Chavez’s rule, the opposition does not hold any real power and continues to fail at passing legislature.