(Re)conceptualising democracy: the limitations of benchmarks based on neoliberal democracy and the need for alternatives

Abstract

The 21st century has witnessed increasing dissatisfaction with existing democratic institutions and processes and the growth of alternatives to representative democracy. At the same time arguments are emerging that conventional standards for evaluating democracy are ‘out of touch’ with current realities; in particular, with popular understandings, experiences and aspirations of what democracy should look like. This paper draws on empirical research in Caracas, Venezuela into how Venezuelan people understand democracy, in order to build a case that current evaluatory benchmarks are inadequate for understanding complex processes of social change based on more direct and participatory forms of democratic engagement.

Keywords:

• democracy
• participation
• Venezuela

Notes

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2. Buxton, “Foreword,” x.

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4. Buxton, “Foreword,” xi.

5. Shapiro, The State of Democratic Theory, 2.

6. Smilde, “Introduction,” 2.

7. Smilde and Hellinger, Venezuela’s Bolivarian Democracy.

8. Held, Models of Democracy.

9. Raby, Democracy and Revolution, 21.

10. Grugel and Riggirozzi, “Post-neoliberalism.”

11. Chomsky, Profit over People.

12. Della Porta, Can Democracy be Saved?; and Vazquez-Arroyo, “Liberal Democracy and Neoliberalism.”

13. Fung and Wright, “Deepening Democracy.”

14. Raby, Democracy and Revolution.

15. Gandin and Apple, “Thin versus Thick Democracy.”

16. Levitsky and Roberts, The Resurgence of the Latin American Left.

17. Muhr, “Counter-hegemonic Regionalism”; and Muhr, “(Re)constructing Popular Power.”

18. Held, Models of Democracy.

19. Macpherson, The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy, 51.

20. Held, Models of Democracy; Muhr, “Counter-hegemonic Regionalism”; and Muhr, “(Re)constructing Popular Power.”

21. Held, Models of Democracy; García-Guadilla and Mallen, “Venezuela”; and Lupia and Matsusaka, “Direct Democracy.”

22. Harris, “Bolivia and Venezuela.”

23. Buxton, “Foreword,” xv.

24. Raby, Democracy and Revolution.

25. Gott, Hugo Chavez.

26. Ellner, “Introduction.”

27. Smilde, “Introduction.”

28. Ellner, “Introduction”; Hellinger, “Political Overview”; and Derham, “Undemocratic Democracy.”

29. Buxton, “Foreword,” xv.

30. Lander, “Venezuelan Social Conflict.”

31. Gaventa, “Towards Participatory Governance,” 25.

32. Gott, Hugo Chavez, 143–144.

33. MINCI, Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

34. MINEP, Democracia Participativa y Protagónica.

35. Irazabal and Foley, “Reflections on the Venezuelan Transition.”

36. Grugel and Riggirozzi, “Post-neoliberalism”; and Wylde, “State, Society and Markets.”

37. Hellinger, “Afterword,” 340.

38. Buxton, “Foreword,” xii.

39. Latinobarometer, 1995–2013.

40. Brading, “From Passive to Radical Revolution,” 10.

41. Latinobarometer, 2008, 6.

42. HRW, Human Rights Watch Report 2008, 1.

43. Latinobarometer, 2008, 6.

44. Muhr, “Global Counter-hegemony.”

45. Burbach and Piñeiro, “Venezuela’s Participatory Socialism,” 181.

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47. Ercan and Gagnon, “The Crisis of Democracy.”

48. Ellner, “The Top-down and Bottom-up Approach,” 2.

49. Garcia-Guadilla, “La Praxis de los Consejos Comunales.”

50. Garcia-Guadilla and Mallen, “Venezuela.”

51. Shapiro, The State of Democratic Theory, 2.

52. Burbach and Piñeiro, “Venezuela’s Participatory Socialism”; and Harnecker, Transfiriendo Poder a la Gente.

53. Buxton, “Foreword,” xi.

54. Brewer-Carias, “Centralised Federalism in Venezuela”; Canache, “Chavismo and Democracy in Venezuela”; and Seligson and Boidi, “Cultura Política.”

55. Gagnon and Chou, “Why Democratic Theory?,” 2–3.

56. Buxton, “Foreword,” xv.

57. Dewey, Democracy and Education, 87.

58. Duffy, “Education, Democracy and Social Change.”

59. Ercan and Gagnon, “The Crisis of Democracy,” 3.

60. Buxton, “Foreword,” xi.

61. Latinobarometer, 2013, 8.