Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias: Leadership and Governing Style - A Democratic Leader?

Introduction

Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias, an avowed socialist, has won three presidential elections since 1998. Since coming to office, he has drastically reformed the Venezuelan economy, seizing control of private companies, redistributing land and spending billions of dollars on social programs that benefit Venezuela's poor (Ellner, 79). Nearly 38% of Venezuelans live below the poverty line. Venezuela's upper class, however, has adamantly opposed those reforms. Indeed, although Chavez continues to win elections--most recently in December 2006 - he has also had to fend off a 2002 coup attempt as well as a 2004 recall election (Corrales & Penfold, 104). Generally speaking, the opposition to Chavez and his so-called socialist revolution stems from the Venezuelan media and business sector, as well as from the country's Catholic churches and much of its military. This paper presents an assessment of whether Hugo Chavez is a democratic leader or not.

Discussion

Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias, president of Venezuela from February 1999 to the present writing in 2008, ranks as one of the most influential and controversial figures in post-cold war Latin America (Bruns, 18). Distinguished by his left-populist policies, strident anti-imperialism and anti-neoliberalism, promotion of Latin American integration—often bombastic and polarizing rhetoric—and volcanic energy, and the driving force behind Venezuela's so-called Bolivarian revolution, Chavez elicits strong emotions among both supporters and detractors (Krull, 40). A key debate among scholars is whether his "democratic socialism" will lead to a populist dictatorship characteristic of Latin America in the 20th century, or whether his government can pursue a populist social revolution while maintaining the democratic political structures that have endured since the days of Romulo Betancourt in the late 1950s (Corrales & Michael, 26).

Recoup Movement and Governance Approach

Chavez cannot be regarded as purely democratic as he ran a coup against the country's official. In 1982 he founded the Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement that was reflection of his autocratic leadership style. In February 1992, as a lieutenant colonel in the paratroop division of the military, he led a coup against the presidency of Carlos Andres Perez Rodriguez (Ellner, 77-81). The coup leaders identified themselves as the Bolivarian Movement and accused the government of tolerating widespread corruption. 

Since he was elected in 1999, Chavez has advanced socialist reforms of the Venezuelan economy, nationalizing some industries in order to distribute much of the state's wealth to the country's impoverished population (Corrales & Penfold, 101). Chavez called for constitutional reform the very day he was elected, and eventually succeeded in eroding the authority of the judicial and legislative branches, and abolishing presidential term limits. In 1997, Chavez organized the Fifth Republic Movement and as its candidate captured the December 6, 1998, presidential elections (Corrales & Penfold, 102). Despite pledges to tear down the old order and eradicate government corruption, reform the public sector, and expand economic and social opportunities for the poor, Chavez initially focused on usurping political power. He dismissed the bicameral Congress, and then initiated a constituent congress that wrote a new constitution providing all Venezuelans with ...