Abstract

GUERRERO, Mario Guillermo  and  SUAREZ-ISKIHATA, Pedro. Understanding Democratic Erosion In Latin America: The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela as A Case of “Democratic Backsliding” (period 2009-2017). CONfines relacion. internaci. ciencia política [online]. 2017, vol.13, n.25, pp.31-54.  Epub Jan 20, 2025. ISSN 1870-3569.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of “democratic backsliding” based on the case of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (period 2009-2017). We understand that the present case shows interest since it allows to clearly visualize the main theoretical-methodological dimensions considered central to recognize if a democratic regime of a certain country is “in retreat”. The structure that we will adopt for our analysis will consist of two parts. The first of the axes will be devoted to discussing the main theoretical-methodological characteristics worked by the “democratic backsliding” perspective that will be considered in our analysis. Regarding the second axis, a brief historical development of the case will be carried out and the characteristics of the case will be systematized, based on the main theoretical-methodological dimensions that the selected perspective takes into consideration when characterizing how much democratic and how much authoritarian has a certain regime. In summary, our analysis will allow us to sustain that Venezuela is going through a period of “democratic backsliding”, implying the latter a progressive step from a democratic regime to one of authoritarian character. At the same time, it will allow us to identify which are the main characteristics of this process. This work will end up discussing some problems that arise from the description made here, identifying potential questions that are feasible to perform in future work.

Keywords : democratic backsliding; Venezuela; democratic regime; authoritarian regime; grey zone.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )