Review article

VENEZUELA – DEMOCRACY OR SEMIDEMOCRACY?

Lidija Kos-Stanišić orcid.org/0000-0002-9013-6088 ; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The author outlines the development of democracy in Latin America and considers the political trends and the period of development of Venezuela in the second half of 20. century. Unlike other states in the region, in which undemocratic regimes still prevails, Venezuela has been a democratic state since 1958. In regards to the fact that its democratic development has latter been following the trend in the region, the author considers the case of Venezuela as a sign-post of the political trends in Latin America. As Hugo Chavez has recently been trying to change the representative democracy to a plebiscite democracy, the author comes to the conclusion that the case of Venezuela is a mark of the future political development of Latin America. These changes can be seen as a potential come back of a softer version of authoritarianism.

Keywords

Venezuela; democracy; plebiscite democracy; semidemocracy; Latin America

Hrčak ID:

21825

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/21825

Publication date:

25.7.2005.

Article data in other languages: croatian

Visits: 2.862 *