Following Hugo Chávez’s election to the Venezuela’s presidency, where he remained from 1999 till his death of cancer in March 2013, the country went from being a representative, albeit flawed, democracy (1958–98) to being an “electoral authoritarian” or “competitive authoritarian” regime. But can the chavista model survive the demise of the strongman from whom it takes its name? By all appearances it has begun to break down with surprising speed since his death.
About the Author
Miriam Kornblith is director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, D.C. She has taught politics at the Central University of Venezuela, and from 1998 to 1999 served as a board member and vice-president of the Venezuelan National Electoral Council.
Why do some hybrid regimes remain stable over time, while others become more authoritarian? Venezuela’s autocratic turn has been driven by the ruling party’s declining electoral fortunes and by a…
Latin America’s much-discussed political “left turn” has taken two very different forms. Why has the region’s commodities boom led some left-turn states to move toward “plebiscitarian superpresidentialism,” while others have…
Latin America remains haunted by the specter of “strongman” rule. Term limits have been a way of guarding against this threat, but aspiring autocrats have now found a new avenue…
