Hugo Chavez and the crisis of political-party representation in Venezuela

Abstract

This paper considers the current political situation in Venezuela a direct consequence of the collapse of the party system, with the AD and the COPEI being its traditional actors. The author further analyses the populist regime of Hugo Chavez as a “competitive authoritarianism”, insofar as the crisis of representation is concerned and points out that one of the particular features of the current development in Venezuela is that it does not necessarily constitutes the exercise of election, but rather the cooptation by the executive of other power domains: legislative, judicial, and the mass media.