ABSTRACT
The second chapter of this investigation described the historical context in Venezuela, thus unfolding the socio-political terrain where this populist project was constructed. An alliance of several political parties and social organization named Polo Patriótico gave Chávez the platform to persuade Venezuela's discontented electorate to support the institutional change his Bolivarian project advocated in the December 1998 presidential election. The third chapter outlines the processes that de-instituted the Punto fijo/bipartite institutional system, attempts of anti-Bolivarian sectors to reinstitute their ‘hegemonic position’. It also narrates the second phase of institutional radicalism, which was the ‘mission’ social programs created in 2003. These programs aimed to improve the lives of Venezuela's excluded sectors. This chapter concludes by analyzing the emergence and impact of new opposition forces and Chávez's first electoral defeat in a constitutional referendum in December 2007. Chapter 4 is an in-depth analysis of the Barrio Adentro mission healthcare program. This field-work investigation casts light on its practices, strengths, and inability to provide a ‘free’ healthcare program in Venezuela. The previous chapter expands on one of the new opposition forces (the student movement) discussed in Chapter 3.
