Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface and Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Part I: Antecedents: The Foundations of the Punto Fijo Regime of Representative Democracy
Chapter 1. The Normalization of Punto Fijo Democracy
Part II: The Actors: Making Political Demands
Chapter 2. Urban Poor and Political Order
Chapter 3. The Military: From Marginalization to Center Stage
Chapter 4. Entrepreneurs: Profits without Power?
Chapter 5. Civil Society: Late Bloomers
Chapter 6. Intellectuals: An Elite Divided
Chapter 7. The United States and Venezuela: From a Special Relationship to Wary Neighbors
Chapter 8. The Unraveling of Venezuela's Party System: From Party Rule to Personalistic Politics and Deinstitutionalization
Part III: Policy Making and Its Consequences
Chapter 9. Decentralization: Key to Understanding a Changing Nation
Chapter 10. The Syndrome of Economic Decline and the Quest for Change
Chapter 11. Public Opinion, Political Socialization, and Regime Stabilization
Part IV: Conclusion
Chapter 12. From Representative to Participatory Democracy? Regime Transformation in Venezuela
Notes
Glossary
References
List of Contributors
Index

About the Author

Jennifer L. McCoy is a professor of political science at Georgia State University and director of the Americas Program at the Carter Center. David J. Myers is a professor of political science at Pennsylvania State University.

Reviews

The contributors to this edited volume show the negative political impact of an economy based on oil exports and dependent on the global price of oil. Choice This sobering postmortem reveals with depressing clarity the conditions that gave rise to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. -- Richard Feinberg Foreign Affairs Provides the best contextual understanding of Venezuelan politics, both today and in recent decades. -- Alan Siaroff Political Studies Review The breadth of the editors' approach is a welcome corrective to those works on Venezuela that focus almost exclusively on institutional arrangements including electoral systems and the rules governing executive power. -- Steve Ellner Journal of Latin American Studies This volume is a welcome addition to the rather thin body of scholarship on Venezuela. -- Matthew Soberg Shugart Perspectives on Politics An excellent edited volume that updates the literature on several aspects of Venezuela's political system. -- Kirk A. Hawkins Latin American Politics and Society Important book. -- Maxwell A. Cameron Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies