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Latin America & Caribbean / Comment

Chavez' failure at the polls opens a new horizon in Venezuelan politics

11/12/2007 By Susanne Gratius, Laura Tedesco

President Chávez’s mandate now has an expiry date. This fact, along with the weakening of his government, modifies the political scenario not only in Venezuela but also in other countries of the region (mainly Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador).

Whatever the destiny of the president and his political project, by rejecting constitutional reform, Venezuelans demonstrated that populism could not overwhelm the democratic framework.

The next months will prove if Chávez has understood this message. If he does, a more favourable period for democratic participation can be expected, along with a decline of the hegemonic project.

If he does not, the most likely scenario is the continuity of national military populism, and, in the best case scenario, of the polarisation between different and irreconcilable political projects.

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Keywords

Conflict Democracy Latin America & Caribbean Populism Venezuela

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Bio author: Susanne Gratius

PhD in Political Science by the University of Hamburg. Expert in Latin America.

Bio author: Laura Tedesco

PhD from Warwick University. She is now Visiting Professor at the Department of Political Science Department of the University Autónoma of Madrid.