ABSTRACT

The chapter begins with an overview of Venezuelan democracy since 1958, with a particular emphasis on the hegemonic two-party system that dominated until the mid-1990s, and on the political reform of 1989 that established decentralization as the new set of rules for the political game. In Latin America, constitutional reforms in the Andean countries since the 1990s have been considered among the most radical because of the introduction of mechanisms to enhance popular participation at the local level and to narrow the gap between state and civil society. Venezuela and other Andean countries have also pioneered what has been labelled multicultural constitutionalism, whereby traditionally excluded ethnic groups of the population are constitutionally recognized. Latin America's political systems are deeply rooted in the liberal representative democratic tradition; by contrast, neo-constitutionalist actors have promoted a radical participatory form of democracy, at times directly inspired by the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau about the collective will.