Hugo Chávez and the Search for Post-Neoliberal Policy Alternatives in Venezuela

Abstract

Venezuela is considered by many to be at the vanguard of post-neoliberal politics in Latin America and internationally, as President Chávez takes ever-greater strides toward implementing his twenty-first century socialist revolution. Among both policy analysts and academics, debates on Venezuela remain polarized, with Chávez either “demonized or deified” (Cameron 2006)—as a dangerous populist demagogue or an anti-neoliberal/anti-imperialist crusader. This chapter moves beyond this dichotomy to highlight some of the contradictions and complexities of post-neoliberal politics in Venezuela, and asks to what extent they represent a break with neoliberalism in the region—both earlier orthodox forms and more centrally with contemporary variants that are the focus of this book. It argues that as Chávez has consolidated his power, Venezuela’s adoption of increasingly radical reforms, including the expansion of Social Missions, the creation of Community Councils, and the implementation of new models of production, represents a break with both the neoliberal economic orthodoxy that prevailed in Venezuela in the 1990s and the modified forms that persist throughout the region.