ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the complex and contradictory dynamics of socialist development in Venezuela—the project of constructing a new form of socialism—the socialism of the 21st century—in the form of a social and solidarity economy based on cooperativism, communalism and ‘people power’. Most proposals for alternative development are predicated on one form or other of capitalism, a more humane form of capitalism, a human form of development achieved by reforming the system. In Venezuela, however, and to some extent in Bolivia, the project of alternative development is predicated on socialism, not the socialism of the 20th century based on the agency of the state, but the ‘socialism of the 21st century’ based on the agency of community-based organisations in the popular sector. The chapter discusses the prospects and pitfalls of this socialist model, with reference to the forces that favour or allow for such a development and those that actively impede it. As the author understands and reconstructs it, Venezuela is caught up in the vortex of conflicting forces of social change, with an uncertain outcome.
