Participatory Democracy in Venezuela, part 2

[aneerkoinos]

"Perhaps the most progressive and certainly one of the most ambitious of these goals is the creation of a new political culture based on the implementation of participatory democracy. Indeed the political culture of Venezuela, of Latin America as a whole in fact, is arguably dysfunctional. In Howard J. Wiarda’s The Soul of Latin America: the Culture and Political Tradition, he describes democracy in Latin America as top-down, organic, elitist, centralized, racist, hierarchical, statist, nonparticipatory, patrimonial, exploitative, and executive-centered.

Lorenza Rodríguez, President of the Caracas district (parroquia<7>) of Sucre describes her country’s experience with ‘democracy’ on a more personal level, “the democracy we had for 40 years before Chávez came to power was not a democracy, it was a dictatorship disguised as a democracy. It was called a democracy due to the fact that people could vote for one of two parties…this does not mean that people were not persecuted and killed and that their rights were not trampled upon. The people who had ideas that differed to those of the ruling parties: AD and COPEI, if they aligned with a party such as MAS, La Causa R, or Pro-Catia; these people were considered Communists and were persecuted.”

“¡Tomen el poder y accionen!” (Take power and act!) – Hugo Chávez.

The Fifth Republic of Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolutionary process have set out to transform this “dictatorship disguised as a democracy” by addressing social exclusions, decentralizing government, and strengthening democracy by redistributing power and directly involving the people in the political arena.

The new Venezuelan Constitution (1999) considers the Law of Local Public Planning Councils (CLPPs) as the fundamental tool to achieve this new participatory democracy. This law not only provides ample opportunities for the incorporation of the people in the political process, it also deepens the transformation and consolidation of the new Venezuelan State.<8>"

much more:
http://venezuelaanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1328