When "No" Means "Yes to Revolution

Electoral Politics in Bolivarian Venezuela

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4499796
AutoresDaniel Hellinger (Webster University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2005
Volumen32
Número3
Páginas8-32
Fecha de publicación2005-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaLatin American Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0094-582X • E-ISSN: 1552-678X
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0094582x05275530
OpenAlexW2003629849
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13
Referencias citadas9

The lessons of history suggest that pluralist constitutional structures present myriad ways for opponents to block radical overhaul of social and economic structures. Antimajoritarian checks and balances make redistribution of wealth and changes in property regimes difficult to implement. When these mechanisms fail, the capitalist class seems willing and able to abandon constitutional politics and fall back upon the state's night-watchman, the military. In dependent nations, the weight and resources of the hegemon can be brought to bear to influence the outcome. Often, however, institutional and extraconstitutional tools of reaction are unnecessary in polyarchies.' Elections themselves seem to suck the life blood out of revolutionary movements. The Venezuelan recall election of August 15, 2004, evidently accelerated rather than retarded revolutionary momentum. On that day Venezuelans went to the polls in extraordinary numbers to vote on an opposition petition to revoke (hence, revocatorio) President Hugo Chivez's electoral mandate two years before he was to complete his term. To achieve this objective and thereby terminate the Bolivarian Revolution, the opposition Coordinador Democritica (CD) needed to win more votes than the president had received in his second electoral victory of July 2000 (following the adoption of the new constitution). Not only did the CD fail to exceed that number but the No option triumphed with 59 percent of the vote. The majority said yes to the Chavista revolutionary project. This article will examine the ways in which electoral politics and defense of a revolutionary regime were made compatible in Venezuela. After a review of some theoretical perspectives on elections and social change, a comparison of the Venezuelan case with earlier episodes of electoral politics in a revolutionary context (Nicaragua and Chile), and a review of the political and constitutional issues that had to be resolved to allow the recall election to take

Constitution · Law and economics · Mandate · Opposition (politics) · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Victory · Comparative constitutional jurisprudence studies · Cultural and political discourse analysis · Law · Politics and Society in Latin America