ABSTRACT
The political and electoral reform project introduced by the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez clearly failed to arrest popular alienation from the political system and the parties. The decentralisation project and the electoral reforms that accompanied the process were implemented within the institutional framework established in 1958. The initiation and subsequent process of decentralising political and administrative authority was handicapped by cultural, economic and political factors unique to Venezuela. The strategy of distributing the oil rents through the state and party system reinforced the centralisation process. The level of financial centralisation was evident in figures for 1989, the year of the decentralisation reform. The Venezuelan decentralisation experience was atypical in the region. The simple plurality system in the election for regional and municipal executives worked against the democratising intention of the original reform package. The decentralisation process did have the effect of creating new regional power blocks within the parties.
