ABSTRACT
The reform aims to improve the health of the population and to promote popular participation. First, the chapter describes Venezuela's sociopolitical history and contextualizes the country's political experience by comparing it with other countries on the continent. The chapter focuses on participatory governance to set the stage for our case study of popular participation in Barrio Adentro, which is considered to be a distinguishing feature of recent reform efforts in the country. Other states in Latin America are following this path but, limited by their particular political contexts and limited policy maneuverability, their efforts are piecemeal by comparison to those in Venezuela. The preceding summary of literature shows that while various aspects of Barrio Adentro have received attention, research on its community participation aspect has not been addressed. Since many of the Venezuelan participatory governance institutions learned from the Brazilian experience, the chapter uses Abers's categories to analyze the challenges of community participation in Barrio Adentro.
