The Normalization of Punto Fijo Democracy

Abstract

This historical narrative traces the severing of the unbroken thread of Venezuelan democracy from the Betancourt administration of 1959 through Chavez's coup de grace of the dying Punto Fijo democracy & the disillusionment of the 1970s & 80s to contextualize the hard times described in the remainder of the volume. The eras are periodized as elite settlement & convergence from 1957 to 1959, the policy convergence of the political regime up to 1975, & the results of weaknesses & embedded vulnerabilities. The first phase is characterized as an era of power flowing to political party leaders, codification of points of agreements between elites that flowed into the second phase of convergence in which the Punto Fijo political regime was accepted as normal & legitimate up until 1975. The results of four critical weaknesses embedded in the post-1957-1959 democracy during convergence policy undermined the hard-won consensus, & shattered one of the oldest & most respected representative democracies in Latin America. Support among Venezuelan elites for the 1957-1959 settlements appeared broad and deep as of 1975. Prosperity & political stability legitimated limited pluralist roles of the political game in a country that had almost no experience of democracy, but the optimism was brief. Petroleum prices plummeted during 1982, & in 1983 the massive devaluation exploded the myth that there was enough wealth for all Venezuelans to enjoy the good life. Hard times marked the remainder of the decade. References. J. Harwell