democracy in Venezuela

José Antonio Páez was the first to win, elected by the National Congress in indirect elections in 1831.{{Cite web |title=Vargas, José María |url=https://bibliofep.fundacionempresaspolar.org/dhv/entradas/v/vargas-jose-maria/ |website=Fundación Empresas Polar |publisher=Diccionario de Historia de Venezuela}} José María Vargas was the first civilian elected in 1835, also under indirect elections. Said representative democratic system was interrupted several times by several revolutions until the presidential elections of 1860, where, in the context of the Federal War, Venezuelan men directly elected a president for the first time in history, the writer Manuel Felipe de Tovar.{{Cite web |last=Simón Castrillo Buitrago |title=Tovar, Manuel Felipe de, gobierno de |url=https://bibliofep.fundacionempresaspolar.org/dhv/entradas/t/tovar-manuel-felipe-de-gobierno-de/ |website=Fundación Empresas Polar |publisher=Diccionario de Historia de Venezuela}}

File:Rómulo_Gallegos_1940s.jpg was the first president elected by direct vote in the history of Venezuela since 1860.]]

After the death of Juan Vicente Gómez and the end of his military dictatorship, a process of transition to democracy began with the political opening of Eleazar López Contreras and Isaías Medina Angarita. Isaías Medina legalised political parties in 1941, with Democratic Action being the first to be founded.{{Cite web |title=Medina Angarita, Isaías, gobierno de |url=https://bibliofep.fundacionempresaspolar.org/dhv/entradas/m/medina-angarita-isaias-gobierno-de/ |website=Fundación Empresas Polar |publisher=Diccionario de Historia de Venezuela}} Reluctance to install direct voting for presidential elections ended in the 1945 coup d'état led by Carlos Delgado Chalbaud and Marcos Pérez Jiménez and supported by Democratic Action.

The transitional government of Rómulo Betancourt made the necessary reforms for the first free and direct elections in history, the 1947 general election, which resulted in the election of the writer Rómulo Gallegos as president. The period was known as the Trienio Adeco (Adeco Triennium) and was only partially democratic, as some parties were disqualified. The period was finally interrupted by the 1948 coup d'état.

File:1959._Febrero,_13._Toma_de_posesión_de_Rómulo_Betancourt_en_el_Palacio_Federal_Legislativo.jpg was the first directly elected president to complete his term in office in 1964.]]

The second presidency of Rómulo Betancourt was the beginning of the democratic history with political parties banned since 1962, including the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV).{{Cite web |date=2023-08-27 |title=Partido Comunista de Venezuela (PCV) enfrenta su "ilegalización" |url=https://efe.com/mundo/2023-08-27/el-partido-comunista-de-venezuela-se-enfrenta-a-su-ilegalizacion-con-la-moral-en-alto/ |website=EFE Noticias |language=es-ES}} Rafael Caldera's first presidency saw the implementation of a policy of incorporating participants in the country's subversive movements that emerged during the 1960s to lay down their arms, a trend begun by the government of Raúl Leoni.{{Cite web |last=Diego Bautista Urbaneja |title=Caldera, Rafael, gobierno de |url=https://bibliofep.fundacionempresaspolar.org/dhv/entradas/c/caldera-rafael-gobierno-de/ |website=Fundación Empresas Polar |publisher=Diccionario de Historia de Venezuela}}

From 1958 onward, Venezuela was considered to be a relatively stable democracy within a continent that was facing a wave of military dictatorship, consuming almost all Latin American countries in the 1970s.{{Cite news |last=Margolis, J. |date=2019 |title=Venezuela was once the richest, most stable, democracy in Latin America. What happened? |url=https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-02-07/venezuela-was-once-richest-most-stable-democracy-latin-america-what-happened |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127030541/https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-02-07/venezuela-was-once-richest-most-stable-democracy-latin-america-what-happened |archive-date=27 January 2021 |access-date=14 May 2020 |website=The World from PRX |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Corrales |first=Javier |url=https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/book/venezuela-1980s-1990s-and-beyond |title=Venezuela in the 1980s, the 1990s and beyond |publisher=ReVista |year=1999 |pages=26–29 |language=en |access-date=15 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112022947/https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/book/venezuela-1980s-1990s-and-beyond |archive-date=12 November 2020 |url-status=dead}} By 1977, Venezuela was, along with Colombia and Costa Rica, one of only three democracies in Latin America.{{Cite web |last=John Polga-Hecimovich |title=The Roots of Venezuela's Failing State |date=14 April 2017 |url=https://origins.osu.edu/article/roots-venezuelas-failing-state}} Until the early 1980s, it was one of Latin America's four most prosperous states; with an upper-middle economy, and a stable centre-left democracy. The collapse of the oil market in the 1980s left Venezuela (a major crude oil exporter) in great debt.

Democracy was put to the test when socio-economic deterioration and political discontent in some quarters were reflected in two coup attempts in the 1990s.

Two leaders were tried and imprisoned in democracy during the rest of the 20th century: Marcos Pérez Jiménez in 1963 (more than four years) and Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1993 (more than two years).{{Cite book |last=Jiménez |first=Marcos Pérez |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6sUQAAAAYAAJ |title=Juicio y sentencia al ex-dictador Pérez Jiménez |date=1982 |publisher=Ediciones Centauro |language=es}}{{Cite news |date=19 May 1994 |title=Carlos Andres Pérez, encarcelado por corrupción |url=https://elpais.com/diario/1994/05/19/internacional/769298409_850215.html |website=El País |last=Vinogradoff |first=Ludmila }}

=== Hugo Chávez ===

{{Main|Democratic backsliding in the Americas by country#Venezuela}}

The February 1992 Venezuelan coup attempt was led by Hugo Chávez, who was later elected in 1998 Venezuelan presidential election by appealing on the desires of the poor and pledging economic reforms,{{Cite news|title=Venezuela was once the richest, most stable, democracy in Latin America. What happened?|url=https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-02-07/venezuela-was-once-richest-most-stable-democracy-latin-america-what-happened|last=Margolis, J.|date=2019|website=The World from PRX|language=en|access-date=14 May 2020|archive-date=27 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127030541/https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-02-07/venezuela-was-once-richest-most-stable-democracy-latin-america-what-happened|url-status=live}}{{Cite book|last=Corrales|first=Javier|url=https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/book/venezuela-1980s-1990s-and-beyond|title=Venezuela in the 1980s, the 1990s and beyond|publisher=ReVista|year=1999|pages=26–29|language=en|access-date=15 May 2020|archive-date=12 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112022947/https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/book/venezuela-1980s-1990s-and-beyond|url-status=dead}} and, once in office, securing his power by creating an authoritarian regime, following a relatively stable pattern between 1999 and 2003.{{Cite journal|last1=Corrales|first1=Javier|last2=Penfold-Becerra| first2=Michael.|date=2007|title=Venezuela: Crowding Out the Opposition|journal=Journal of Democracy|volume=18|issue=2|pages=99–113|doi=10.1353/jod.2007.0020|s2cid=153648265|issn=1086-3214}} Chávez started rewriting the constitution swiftly after arriving in-office.{{Cite journal|last=Corrales|first=J.|date=2011|title=Latin-America: A Setback for Chávez|journal=Journal of Democracy|volume=22|pages=37–51|doi=10.1353/jod.2011.a412898 |s2cid=201772516 }} After enabling himself to legally rewrite the constitution and therewith amending a presidential term from five to six years, with a single reelection, Chávez gained full control over the military branch. This allowed him to determine military promotions and eliminate the Senate. As a result, he no longer required legislative approval.{{Cite journal|last=Corrales|first=Javier|date=2015|title=Autocratic Legalism in Venezuela|journal=Journal of Democracy|volume=26|issue=2|pages=37–51|doi=10.1353/jod.2015.0031|s2cid=153641967|issn=1086-3214}} The weakening of political institutions and increased government corruption transformed Venezuela into a personal dictatorship.{{Cite journal|last=de la Torre|first=Carlos|date=10 April 2017|title=Hugo Chávez and the diffusion of Bolivarianism|journal=Democratization|volume=24|issue=7|pages=1271–1288|doi=10.1080/13510347.2017.1307825|s2cid=218524439|issn=1351-0347}}{{Cite journal|last1=Geddes|first1=Barbara|last2=Wright|first2=Joseph|last3=Frantz|first3=Erica|date=2014|title=Autocratic Breakdown and Regime Transitions: A New Data Set|journal=Perspectives on Politics|volume=12|issue=2|pages=313–331|doi=10.1017/s1537592714000851|s2cid=145784357|issn=1537-5927}}

Chavez's dominance of the media (including a constant presence on television) and his charismatic personality contributed to democratic backsliding in Venezuela,{{Cite encyclopedia|author=David Landau|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e5WRDwAAQBAJ|title=Constitution-Making and Authoritarianism in Venezuela: The First Time as Tragedy, the Second as Farce|encyclopedia=Constitutional Democracy in Crisis?|date=23 August 2018|editor=Mark A. Graber|editor2=Sanford Levinson|editor3=Mark V. Tushnet|isbn=978-0-19-088898-5|publisher=Oxford University Press|oclc=1030444422|pages=164–167, 501|access-date=29 May 2020|archive-date=17 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210317161150/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Constitutional_Democracy_in_Crisis/e5WRDwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}} in addition to constitutional revisions that concentrated Chávez's power and diminished the executive's accountability.{{Cite encyclopedia|author=Kim Lane Scheppele|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e5WRDwAAQBAJ|title=The Party's Over|encyclopedia=Constitutional Democracy in Crisis?|date=23 August 2018|editor=Mark A. Graber|editor2=Sanford Levinson|editor3=Mark V. Tushnet|isbn=978-0-19-088898-5|publisher=Oxford University Press|oclc=1030444422|pages=164–167, 501|access-date=29 May 2020|archive-date=17 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210317161150/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Constitutional_Democracy_in_Crisis/e5WRDwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}

In 2002 the military forces demanded Hugo Chávez's resignation, arresting him and taking him to Fort Tiuna{{Cite news |last=Vinogradoff |first=Ludmila |date=2002-04-13 |title=Chávez está arrestado en un centro militar de Caracas por la muerte de 15 civiles |url=https://elpais.com/diario/2002/04/13/internacional/1018648803_850215.html |issn=1134-6582 |agency=El País}} during year's coup d'état, until the National Assembly returned the presidency to him.{{Cite news |date=2002-04-14 |title=Hugo Chávez regresa al poder en Venezuela |url=https://elpais.com/internacional/2002/04/14/actualidad/1018735202_850215.html |language=es |issn=1134-6582 |agency=El País}}

In 2008, Venezuela was ranked the least democratic nation in South America in The Economist Democracy Index. The same year, Freedom House removed Venezuela from its list of countries with representative democracy.{{Cite web |date=2014-12-16 |title=Venezuela {{!}} Freedom House |url=https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/venezuela |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216104051/https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/venezuela |archive-date=16 December 2014 |access-date=2022-07-29 }}

During the government of Nicolás Maduro, 1441 people were disqualified from holding political office in Venezuela,{{Cite web |date=4 July 2023 |title=Venezuela: inhabilitaciones como garrote contra la oposición |url=https://www.dw.com/es/venezuela-inhabilitaciones-pol%C3%ADticas-como-garrote-contra-la-oposici%C3%B3n/a-66115228 |website=Deutsche Welle}} including three of the opposition leaders: former governor and presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, former mayor Leopoldo López and former deputy María Corina Machado.

By 2022, according to The Economist Democracy Index, Venezuela ranked 147th out of 167 countries, with a rating of an authoritarian regime.{{Cite web |date=3 February 2023 |title=Índice de Democracia: Venezuela se mantiene en lista de regímenes autoritarios |url=https://talcualdigital.com/indice-de-democracia-venezuela-se-mantiene-en-lista-de-regimenes-autoritarios/ |website=Tal Cual}}

• Censorship in Venezuela
• Democracy in Mexico
• Chilean transition to democracy
• Spanish transition to democracy

{{Reflist|2}}

• [https://produccioncientificaluz.org/index.php/utopia/article/view/2575/2575 La democracia venezolana desde el discurso político] by Ana Irene Méndez and Elda Morales of the University of Zulia.

{{Latin America topic|Democracy in}}

Category:Democracy by location

Category:Politics of Venezuela

Category:Political history of Venezuela

Category:Democratization