A Rude Awakening: the Underside of Venezuela’s Civil Society in the Time of Hugo Chávez

Abstract

Civil Society and social movements have been heralded as vehicles for democratization in Latin America under the assumption that increased citizen participation in the political process could only strengthen democratic culture. After decades of social mobilization, participatory democracy was institutionalized in the Venezuelan Constitution of 1999 endowing Civil Society with unprecedented political powers and effectively legitimizing Civil Society’s incursion into the political. While this institutionalization may have fomented democratic practices;, it also unleashed a wave of violent confrontations between pro-Chávez and anti-Chávez forces weakening Venezuela’s democratic culture in their wake. We explore how the ethical principles attributed to Civil Society were undermined by conflicts fueled by polarization and increased citizen participation in the political process.

Keywords

• Civil society
• sociopolitical polarization
• sociopolitical conflicts
• social movements
• participative democracy
• institutionalization of citizen’s participation