When the springs do not resist: recentralization as an authoritarian strategy in Venezuela

Abstract

The paper analyzes the theoretical approaches on democracy and authoritarianism and makes them dialogue with the two decades of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. It reviews the regime change during the Chavismo government (1999-present), and identifies the role of the recentralization process as a strategy in the transition towards hegemonic authoritarianism. What is the effect of recentralization and why does it serve as a fulcrum for regime change? We argue that the concentration of power, through the subordination of territorial authorities and the subjugation of local autonomy within a recentralization process, gives governments an impulse to harden their authoritarian actions.