Political Party Factionalism and Democracy in Venezuela

Bibliographic Data

ID4912708
AuthorsSteve Ellner (0000-0001-9969-3350, corresponding author)
Year1996
Volume23
Issue3
Pages87-109
Publication date1996-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLatin American Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-582X • E-ISSN: 1552-678X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0094582x9602300306
OpenAlexW2089442531
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited12

Many political analysts, including orthodox marxists, have assumed that those in the forefront of the effort to achieve authentic democracy are the most committed to popular and nationalistic socioeconomic change. Similarly, they have taken it for granted that the progressive factions of nonleftist parties are more likely to insist on the democratization of their respective organizations than their party machines, which invariably stand to their right. Thus traditional marxism has viewed the struggle for greater democracy and the struggle for socioeconomic reform as inextricably linked, if not one and the same. I will here examine these assumptions in the context of the economic and political crisis that has characterized Venezuela since the early 1980s. The basic objective is to determine how this critical national setting is reflected in the internal life of political parties and whether the factions that have emerged have consolidated themselves by putting forward a coherent set of positions. The analysis is designed to test the generally accepted notion that party factions in Venezuela lack well-defined positions on issues of substance.' Particular attention will be devoted to two issues that have inspired internal controversy: party statutory reforms designed to promote democratization and neoliberal policies. The two largest parties during this period, the nonleftist Accion Democra'tica (Democratic Action-AD) and the Comite de Organizacion Polftica Electoral Independiente (Committee of Independent Electoral Political Organization-COPEI), have experienced acute factional conflict that has forced on them the issue of internal democratization. Factionalism testified to the intensity of the nation's crisis, first in that the factions espoused

Context (archaeology) · Democracy · Democratization · Geography · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Statutory law · Cultural and political discourse analysis · Law · Political Theory and Democracy · Politics and Society in Latin America · Public Administration

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