Download or read book Society and Economy in Venezuela written by Vitor Eduardo Schincariol and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-10-28 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an overview of the economic policies adopted by the Bolivarian governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela between 1998 and 2018, and the economic and social results of these policies. The recent history of Venezuela has attracted much attention due to Chávez’s and Maduro’s self-declared search for socialism since the beginning of the 21st century and the economic trajectory of the country in this period, which experienced significant economic growth during the international oil boom in the first decade of the century, followed by a huge economic crisis in the second decade. The volume adopts an economic history approach, taking into account both economic and social variables to analyze the Venezuelan overall socio-economic performance since 1998. Drawing on official documents and statistics, as well as on the available literature, it presents an empirical analysis of Venezuelan economic and social histories during the Bolivarian period, describing and analyzing the achievements and limits of the policies adopted between 1998 and 2018. Society and Economy in Venezuela: An Overview of the Bolivarian Period (1998-2018) will be a useful introduction to sociologists, political economists, political scientists, economic historians and other social scientists interested in understanding the multiple interrelations between economy and society in Bolivarian Venezuela. “This book offers a thoughtful, committed and illuminating analysis of the socialist experiment in Venezuela. Its strengths and weaknesses are examined in unprecedented detail, in order to identify the drivers and limitation of 'socialism in the 21st century'. An essential work for scholars, students and citizens concerned with Venezuela.” – Alfredo Saad-Filho, King's College London
Download or read book The Enduring Legacy written by Miguel Tinker Salas and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-20 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oil has played a major role in Venezuela’s economy since the first gusher was discovered along Lake Maracaibo in 1922. As Miguel Tinker Salas demonstrates, oil has also transformed the country’s social, cultural, and political landscapes. In The Enduring Legacy, Tinker Salas traces the history of the oil industry’s rise in Venezuela from the beginning of the twentieth century, paying particular attention to the experiences and perceptions of industry employees, both foreign and Venezuelan. He reveals how class ambitions and corporate interests combined to reshape many Venezuelans’ ideas of citizenship. Middle-class Venezuelans embraced the oil industry from the start, anticipating that it would transform the country by introducing modern technology, sparking economic development, and breaking the landed elites’ stranglehold. Eventually Venezuelan employees of the industry found that their benefits, including relatively high salaries, fueled loyalty to the oil companies. That loyalty sometimes trumped allegiance to the nation-state. North American and British petroleum companies, seeking to maintain their stakes in Venezuela, promoted the idea that their interests were synonymous with national development. They set up oil camps—residential communities to house their workers—that brought Venezuelan employees together with workers from the United States and Britain, and eventually with Chinese, West Indian, and Mexican migrants as well. Through the camps, the companies offered not just housing but also schooling, leisure activities, and acculturation into a structured, corporate way of life. Tinker Salas contends that these practices shaped the heart and soul of generations of Venezuelans whom the industry provided with access to a middle-class lifestyle. His interest in how oil suffused the consciousness of Venezuela is personal: Tinker Salas was born and raised in one of its oil camps.
Download or read book Venezuela Before Ch vez written by Ricardo Hausmann and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-06-13 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the beginning of the twentieth century, Venezuela had one of the poorest economies in Latin America, but by 1970 it had become the richest country in the region and one of the twenty richest countries in the world, ahead of countries such as Greece, Israel, and Spain. Between 1978 and 2001, however, Venezuela’s economy went sharply in reverse, with non-oil GDP declining by almost 19 percent and oil GDP by an astonishing 65 percent. What accounts for this drastic turnabout? The editors of Venezuela Before Chávez, who each played a policymaking role in the country’s economy during the past two decades, have brought together a group of economists and political scientists to examine systematically the impact of a wide range of factors affecting the economy’s collapse, from the cost of labor regulation and the development of financial markets to the weakening of democratic governance and the politics of decisions about industrial policy. Aside from the editors, the contributors are Omar Bello, Adriana Bermúdez, Matías Braun, Javier Corrales, Jonathan Di John, Rafael Di Tella, Javier Donna, Samuel Freije, Dan Levy, Robert MacCulloch, Osmel Manzano, Francisco Monaldi, María Antonia Moreno, Daniel Ortega, Michael Penfold, José Pineda, Lant Pritchett, Cameron A. Shelton, and Dean Yang.
Download or read book Things Are Never So Bad That They Can t Get Worse written by William Neuman and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named Foreign Affairs Best Books of 2022 and the National Endowment for Democracy Notable Books of 2022 "Richly reported...a thorough and important history." -Tim Padgett, The New York Times A nuanced and deeply-reported account of the collapse of Venezuela, and what it could mean for the rest of the world. Today, Venezuela is a country of perpetual crisis—a country of rolling blackouts, nearly worthless currency, uncertain supply of water and food, and extreme poverty. In the same land where oil—the largest reserve in the world—sits so close to the surface that it bubbles from the ground, where gold and other mineral resources are abundant, and where the government spends billions of dollars on public works projects that go abandoned, the supermarket shelves are bare and the hospitals have no medicine. Twenty percent of the population has fled, creating the largest refugee exodus in the world, rivaling only war-torn Syria’s crisis. Venezuela’s collapse affects all of Latin America, as well as the United States and the international community. Republicans like to point to Venezuela as the perfect example of the emptiness of socialism, but it is a better model for something else: the destructive potential of charismatic populist leadership. The ascent of Hugo Chávez was a precursor to the emergence of strongmen that can now be seen all over the world, and the success of the corrupt economy he presided over only lasted while oil sold for more than $100 a barrel. Chávez’s regime and policies, which have been reinforced under Nicolás Maduro, squandered abundant resources and ultimately bankrupted the country. Things Are Never So Bad That They Can’t Get Worse is a fluid combination of journalism, memoir, and history that chronicles Venezuela’s tragic journey from petro-riches to poverty. Author William Neuman witnessed it all firsthand while living in Caracas and serving as the New York Times Andes Region Bureau Chief. His book paints a clear-eyed, riveting, and highly personal portrait of the crisis unfolding in real time, with all of its tropical surrealism, extremes of wealth and suffering, and gripping drama. It is also a heartfelt reflection of the country’s great beauty and vibrancy—and the energy, passion, and humor of its people, even under the most challenging circumstances.
Download or read book Venezuela Economic Structure Economic Policy and International Economic Relations written by Lena Berwarth and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2017-08-23 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Economics - International Economic Relations, grade: 1,3, Wiesbaden University of Applied Sciences (Wiesbaden Business School), language: English, abstract: This paper is about the South American country Venezuela. It starts by giving a basic overview, followed by the Economic Policy. Venezuela is still a developing country, so there is information about the development policy efforts to improve. Furthermore I wrote about the grade of governmental interference in economy and how the Venezuelan government carries out fiscal, monetary and foreign exchange policy. In the fourth chapter, you learn about the current macroeconomic situation concerning the GDP situation, unemployment and especially about the extremely high inflation. After that the economic structure of Venezuela is described by subdividing it to the agricultural, industrial and service sector and a conclusion about the most significant branch in Venezuela, the oil industry. In the sixth chapter the international economic relations of Venezuela are presented by showing the main trade partners and the products which exchanged. Moreover the attractiveness for FDI is examined and I give a description about the reasons for emigration and besides about Venezuela’s participation in customs unions and free trade areas. I conclude the paper by giving my personal opinion about Venezuela’s major problems and potentials.
Download or read book Financial Crisis Management and Democracy written by Bettina De Souza Guilherme and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-12-09 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book discusses financial crisis management and policy in Europe and Latin America, with a special focus on equity and democracy. Based on a three-year research project by the Jean Monnet Network, this volume takes an interdisciplinary, comparative approach, analyzing both the role and impact of the EU and regional organizations in Latin America on crisis management as well as the consequences of crisis on the process of European integration and on Latin America’s regionalism. The book begins with a theoretical introduction, exploring the effects of the paradigm change on economic policies in Europe and in Latin America and analyzing key systemic aspects of the unsustainability of the present economic system explaining the global crises and their interconnections. The following chapters are divided into sections. The second section explores aspects of regional governance and how the economic and financial crises were managed on a macro level in Europe and Latin America. The third and fourth sections use case studies to drill down to the impact of the crises at the national and regional levels, including the emergence of political polarization and rise in populism in both areas. The last section presents proposals for reform, including the transition from finance capitalism to a sustainable real capitalism in both regions and at the inter-regional level of EU-LAC relations.The volume concludes with an epilogue on financial crises, regionalism, and domestic adjustment by Loukas Tsoukalis, President of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP). Written by an international network of academics, practitioners and policy advisors, this volume will be of interest to researchers and students interested in macroeconomics, comparative regionalism, democracy, and financial crisis management as well as politicians, policy advisors, and members of national and regional organizations in the EU and Latin America.
Download or read book Venezuela s Bolivarian Democracy written by David Smilde and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2011-08-05 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looking beyond Hugo Chávez and the national government, contributors examine forms of democracy involving ordinary Venezuelans: in communal councils, cultural activities, blogs, community media, and other forums.
Download or read book Autocracy Rising written by Javier Corrales and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2023-02-06 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Nicolás Maduro reinvented authoritarianism for the twenty-first centurVenezuela, which once enjoyed periods of democratically elected governments in the latter half of the twentieth century, has descended into autocratic rule, coupled with economic collapse. In his new book, Autocracy Rising, veteran scholar of Latin American politics Javier Corrales explores how and why this happened. Corrales focuses on two themes: party systems and institutional capacity. He argues that Venezuela’s democratic backsliding advanced when the ruling party obtained far too much electoral clout while the opposition fragmented. The state then took control of formerly independent agencies of the state. This allowed the ruling party to use and abuse of the law to favor the president—which in turn generated a permanent economic crisis. After succeeding Hugo Chávez in 2013, Nicolás Maduro confronted, unexpectedly, another change in the party system: a rising opposition. This triggered deeper autocratization. To survive, the state was compelled to modernize autocratic practices and seek alliances with sinister partners. In short, Maduro concentrated power, paradoxically, by sharing power. Autocracy Rising compares what occurred in Venezuela to twenty other cases throughout Latin America where presidents were forced out of office. Corrales illuminates the depressing cycle in which semi-authoritarian regimes become increasingly autocratic in response to crisis, only to cause new crises that lead to even greater authoritarianism.
Download or read book Venezuela written by Miguel Tinker Salas and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-02 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the top ten oil exporters in the world and a founding member of OPEC, Venezuela currently supplies 11 percent of U.S. crude oil imports. But when the country elected the fiery populist politician Hugo Chavez in 1998, tensions rose with this key trading partner and relations have been strained ever since. In this concise, accessible addition to Oxford's What Everyone Needs to Know® series, Miguel Tinker Salas -- a native of Venezuela who has written extensively about the country -- takes a broadly chronological approach that focuses especially on oil and its effects on Venezuela's politics, economy, culture, and international relations. After an introductory section that discusses the legacy of Spanish colonialism, Tinker Salas explores the "The Era of the Gusher," a period which began with the discovery of oil in the early twentieth century, encompassed the mid-century development and nationalization of the industry, and ended with a change of government in 1989 in response to widespread protests. The third section provides a detailed discussion of Hugo Chavez-his rise to power, his domestic political and economic policies, and his high-profile forays into international relations-as well as surveying the current landscape of Venezuela in the wake of Chavez's death in March 2013. Arranged in a question-and-answer format that allows readers to search topics of particular interest, the book covers questions such as, who is Simón Bolívar and why is he called the George Washington of Latin America? How did the discovery of oil change Venezuela's relationship to the U.S.? What forces where behind the coups of 1992? And how does Venezuela interact with China, Russia, and Iran? Informative, engaging, and written by a leading expert on the country, Venezuela: What Everyone Needs to Know® offers an authoritative guide to an increasingly important player on the world stage. What Everyone Needs to Know® is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.
Download or read book Key Facts on Venezuela written by Patrick W. Nee and published by The Internationalist. This book was released on 2013-07-25 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn everything you need to about the Republic of Venezuela! The Key Facts on Venezuela provides readers with essential statistical and business information on the South American country, including: -Background of Venezuela -Geography of Venezuela -People and Society of Venezuela -Government and Key Leaders of Venezuela -Economy of Venezuela -Energy Resources of Venezuela -Communications in Venezuela -Transportation in Venezuela -Military of Venezuela -Transnational Issues of Venezuela The Internationalist Business Guides provide crucial up-to-date facts on countries around the world. Visit us at www.internationalist.com
Download or read book Ambitious Rebels written by Reuben Zahler and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2013-12-19 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "By examining everyday life in Venezuela's post-colonial period, Reuben Zahler provides a broad perspective on conditions throughout the Americas and the tension between traditional norms and new liberal standards during Venezuela's transformation from aSpanish colony to a modern republic"--
Download or read book Venezuelan Politics in the Ch vez Era written by Steve Ellner and published by Lynne Rienner Publishers. This book was released on 2004 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The radical alteration of the political landscape in Venezuela following the electoral triumph of the controversial Hugo Chavez calls for a fresh look at the country s institutions and policies. In response, this title offers a revisionist view of Venezuela's recent political history and a fresh appraisal of the Chavez administration.
Download or read book Prosperity and Liberty written by Rafael Acevedo and published by . This book was released on 2019-05-08 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prosperity & Liberty: What Venezuela needs... is a book Edited by: Rafael Acevedo, that contains essays by: Rafael Acevedo, Humberto Andrade, Leszek Balcerowicz, Walter Block, Larisa Burakova, Luis Cirocco, Alejandro Chafuén, Hugo Faría, Steve Hanke, Robert Lawson, María Lorca-Susino, Luis Marchena, Jean Minardi, Daniel Mitchell, and Benjamin Powell.Reading this book, people will understand the why and how Venezuela ended up in the most miserable country of the world, know 4 examples of countries that were like Venezuela but applying radical and real free-market reforms now are four of the most promising economies of the world, and finally people will read the only real free-market proposals to solve Venezuela's crisis. In words of the authors that you can read in this book: "When I decided to work and edit this book, I wanted to offer to the public, not only the Venezuelan, a general idea of the current situation in my country and its main cause, Socialism. I also wanted to show that there are people who have dedicated their work to analyze and propose solutions far different from the most announced - Keynesian and Socialist plans - although unfortunately, it is highly probable that one of the latter will be applied after the Venezuelans overthrown the narco-tyranny. Therefore, this book could be a proof, in the not too distant future, that there were other proposals, which really ensured long-run prosperity and freedom" (Rafael Acevedo, from the Prologue)"At a time when 'democratic' socialism is enjoying increased popularity in the United States, these two lessons are important for the readers of the English language edition of this book. Venezuela was democratic and relatively rich when it was economically free. The situation they find themselves in today is not 'normal' third world poverty nor does it have anything uniquely Latin American about it. Their loss of meaningful democratic freedom and poverty are both a necessary consequence of their adoption of socialist economic policies. Despite socialist U.S. politicians' claims to favor democracy, we can expect a similar journey down the Road to Serfdom in the United States if we adopt socialist economic policies." (Benjamin Powell, from the Foreword)"Before we offer a way out of the economic thicket in which Venezuela now finds itself in (circa 2018), let us first document its decline. Perhaps from this historical pattern, we may discern a way out of its present morass." (Walter Block, from the Chapter 1)"In order to understand the disaster unfolding in Venezuela, we need to journey through the most recent century of our history and look at how our institutions deteriorated over time." (Rafael Acevedo & Luis Cirocco, from Chapter 5)"A critical check on government is a wealthy population coupled with an impoverished government, whereby government rules but it is not an owner... patrimonial governments are fertile land to scatter the seeds of corruption, which is another growth retarding mechanism." (Hugo Faría, from Chapter 10)"Venezuela's economy has collapsed. This is the result of years of socialism, incompetence, and corruption, among other things. An important element that mirrors the economy's collapse is Venezuela's currency, the bolívar." (Steve Hanke, from Chapter 11)"Problems of distributive justice that will arise in Venezuela's transition can be divided into two large groups: those having to do with restitution to victims and those having to do with punishment for the guilty." (Alejandro Chafuén, from Chapter 16)"Getting rid of Maduro is a necessary but insufficient step towards getting Venezuela back on its feet. If Venezuela is going to get off "the road to serfdom" and back on a path towards prosperity, ... will need to give voice to Venezuela's market-oriented opposition groups..." (Benjamin Powell & Rafael Acevedo, from the Epilogue)
Download or read book The Smugglers World written by Jesse Cromwell and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2018-11-05 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Smugglers' World examines a critical part of Atlantic trade for a neglected corner of the Spanish Empire. Testimonies of smugglers, buyers, and royal officials found in Venezuelan prize court records reveal a colony enmeshed in covert commerce. Forsaken by the Spanish fleet system, Venezuelan colonists struggled to obtain European foods and goods. They found a solution in exchanging cacao, a coveted luxury, for the necessities of life provided by contrabandists from the Dutch, English, and French Caribbean. Jesse Cromwell paints a vivid picture of the lives of littoral peoples who normalized their subversions of imperial law. Yet laws and borders began to matter when the Spanish state cracked down on illicit commerce in the 1720s as part of early Bourbon reforms. Now successful merchants could become convict laborers just as easily as enslaved Africans could become free traders along the unruly coastlines of the Spanish Main. Smuggling became more than an economic transaction or imperial worry; persistent local need elevated the practice to a communal ethos, and Venezuelans defended their commercial autonomy through passive measures and even violent political protests. Negotiations between the Spanish state and its subjects over smuggling formed a key part of empire making and maintenance in the eighteenth century.
Download or read book Dragon in the Tropics written by Javier Corrales and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since he was first elected in 1999, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Frías has reshaped a frail but nonetheless pluralistic democracy into a semi-authoritarian regime—an outcome achieved with spectacularly high oil income and widespread electoral support. This eye-opening book illuminates one of the most sweeping and unexpected political transformations in contemporary Latin America. Based on more than fifteen years' experience in researching and writing about Venezuela, Javier Corrales and Michael Penfold have crafted a comprehensive account of how the Chávez regime has revamped the nation, with a particular focus on its political transformation. Throughout, they take issue with conventional explanations. First, they argue persuasively that liberal democracy as an institution was not to blame for the rise of chavismo. Second, they assert that the nation's economic ailments were not caused by neoliberalism. Instead they blame other factors, including a dependence on oil, which caused macroeconomic volatility; political party fragmentation, which triggered infighting; government mismanagement of the banking crisis, which led to more centralization of power; and the Asian crisis of 1997, which devastated Venezuela's economy at the same time that Chávez ran for president. It is perhaps on the role of oil that the authors take greatest issue with prevailing opinion. They do not dispute that dependence on oil can generate political and economic distortions—the "resource curse" or "paradox of plenty" arguments—but they counter that oil alone fails to explain Chávez's rise. Instead they single out a weak framework of checks and balances that allowed the executive branch to extract oil rents and distribute them to the populace. The real culprit behind Chávez's success, they write, was the asymmetry of political power.
Download or read book From Windfall to Curse written by Jonathan Di John and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-12-21 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the discovery of abundant oil resources in the 1920s, Venezuela has had an economically privileged position among the nations of Latin America, which has led to its being treated by economic and political analysts as an exceptional case. In her well-known study of Venezuela’s political economy, The Paradox of Plenty (1997), Stanford political scientist Terry Karl argued that this oil wealth induced extraordinary corruption, rent-seeking, and centralized intervention that resulted in restricting productivity and growth. What this and other studies of Venezuela’s economy fail to explain, however, is how such conditions have accompanied both growth and stagnation at different periods of Venezuela’s history and why countries experiencing similar levels of corruption and rent-seeking produce divergent developmental outcomes. By investigating the record of economic development in Venezuela from 1920 to the present, Jonathan Di John shows that the key to explaining why the economy performed much better between 1920 and 1980 than in the post-1980 period is to understand how political strategies interacted with economic strategies—specifically, how politics determined state capacity at any given time and how the stage of development and development strategies affected the nature of political conflicts. In emphasizing the importance of an approach that looks at the political economy, not just at the economy alone, Di John advances the field methodologically while he contributes to a long-needed history of Venezuela’s economic performance in the twentieth century.
Download or read book The semantics of 21st century socialism and the Venezuelan political system written by José Javier Blanco Rivero and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2016-06-02 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientific Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Politics - Region: Middle and South America, , language: English, abstract: The contemporary Venezuelan political system is observed through Luhmann’s social theory as analytical framework, following the systemic distinction between semantics and social structure. Semantically, the discourse of twenty-first century socialism stands out, promising not only better opportunities for the poor but also a new world order. Semantics of this kind works as a natural self-description identifying people with their leader. Tautological self-descriptions are typical of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. From a socio-structural standpoint the Venezuelan political system is characterised by the inflation of power and money, causing the state to grow out of control as well as public expenditure. As oil prices increased the Bolivarian revolution could afford ambitious national and continental projects, but as the energy market became flooded with cheaper oil, the scarcity of dollars is choking not only Venezuela’s economy but the government’s legitimacy as well.
