ABSTRACT
Edward W. Gude, “Political Violence in Venezuela: 1958–1964,” was first presented as a paper at the September 1967 meeting of The American Political Science Association. Political violence happens relatively rarely and for one reason or another has received relatively scant treatment in the literature of social science. Max Weber provides an analysis which provided a link between revolution, violence, and other conflict management techniques. In his essay, “Politics as a Vocation,” Weber stressed the intimate relationship between politics and violence. One of the important determinants of the role that violence plays in the analysis of political processes is the character of the definition. The frequent conceptualization of force and violence tends to cloud the distinction between legality, legitimacy, and specific acts. Political violence by itself does not necessarily determine the type of change in a political system.
