ABSTRACT
In December 1963, presidential elections were held in Venezuela in a setting of considerable tension. The turnout was overwhelming, and for the first time since the overthrow of the dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez and the subsequent election of Romulo Betancourt as president in 1959, power was passed peacefully by the democratic process. Democracy represents one way of solving the third of the basic tasks of government—reconciling public order with consent—and of shaping policy with respect to the other two tasks—the security and welfare of the society. Nations have often shaken themselves out of the traditional patterns and accepted the burdens and opportunities of modernization in response to the intrusion of more advanced societies—whether that intrusion was military, political, or economic. Democracy is, thus, a method of government that forces government to seek and then to reflect the active will—rather than the passive consent—of the governed.
