Venezuela’s recent recall referendum of President Hugo Chavez was a huge challenge for the opposition which eventually lead to a exhausting and disappointing conclusion. While charges of electronic fraud in the actual voting or vote-counting are unproven, the dubious and even illegal tactics that the Chavez regime used throughout the larger process point to rampant “institutional fraud” that is undermining Venezuelan democracy.
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.
A decade after the end of apartheid, South African democracy may be headed for trouble because the country has yet to fulfill the three requirements of democratic consolidation: inequality-reducing economic…
While many of the world’s pseudodemocracies have lately made the transition to “unadulterated” democracy, Malaysia and its leader, Mahathir Mohamad, have successfully bucked this trend.
