Book contents
- Democratic Backsliding and Public Administration
- Democratic Backsliding and Public Administration
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: Populists, Democratic Backsliding, and Public Administration
- 2 Incomplete Democratization, System Transformation, and the Civil Service: A Case Study on the Weimar Republic and the Nazi Regime in Germany
- 3 Resilience Without Resistance: Public Administration Under Mutating Populisms in Office in Italy
- 4 Illiberal Transformation of Government Bureaucracy in a Fragile Democracy: The Case of Hungary
- 5 Public Administration in Poland in the Times of Populist Drift
- 6 Technocratic-Populist Mayors and Public Administration in Three European Cities
- 7 Populism and the Deep State: The Attack on Public Service Under Trump
- 8 “Doublespeak Populism” and Public Administration: The Case of Mexico
- 9 Venezuela: Sidelining Public Administration Under a Revolutionary-Populist Regime
- 10 Working, Shirking, and Sabotage in Times of Democratic Backsliding: An Experimental Study in Brazil
- 11 Public Administration: How to Respond to Populism and Democratic Backsliding
- 12 Conclusions: Public Administration Under the Rule of Democratic Backsliders
- References
- Index
9 - Venezuela: Sidelining Public Administration Under a Revolutionary-Populist Regime
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 August 2021
- Democratic Backsliding and Public Administration
- Democratic Backsliding and Public Administration
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: Populists, Democratic Backsliding, and Public Administration
- 2 Incomplete Democratization, System Transformation, and the Civil Service: A Case Study on the Weimar Republic and the Nazi Regime in Germany
- 3 Resilience Without Resistance: Public Administration Under Mutating Populisms in Office in Italy
- 4 Illiberal Transformation of Government Bureaucracy in a Fragile Democracy: The Case of Hungary
- 5 Public Administration in Poland in the Times of Populist Drift
- 6 Technocratic-Populist Mayors and Public Administration in Three European Cities
- 7 Populism and the Deep State: The Attack on Public Service Under Trump
- 8 “Doublespeak Populism” and Public Administration: The Case of Mexico
- 9 Venezuela: Sidelining Public Administration Under a Revolutionary-Populist Regime
- 10 Working, Shirking, and Sabotage in Times of Democratic Backsliding: An Experimental Study in Brazil
- 11 Public Administration: How to Respond to Populism and Democratic Backsliding
- 12 Conclusions: Public Administration Under the Rule of Democratic Backsliders
- References
- Index
Summary
What happens to state bureaucracies when authoritarianism emerges? How do autocrats seek to use the administration to their ends? This chapter addresses these questions, analyzing Venezuela as a typical or representative case. Venezuela has been a (more or less) functioning democracy since 1958. Within the system of the so-called "Puntofijismo," major parties agreed to a consensual model of democracy, sharing offices and distributing revenues of the oil rent. The public administration supported and managed the distribution. This led to stability and wealth in regional comparison. In 1998, Hugo Chávez, a former military officer and failed putschist, assumed the presidency in Venezuela. In the following years, but especially under president Maduro, Venezuela experienced a severe decline of democracy and is today clearly an authoritarian regime. In this chapter, we analyze the strategies of the Chavista governments vis-à-vis the administration. We identify three main strategies to sideline the established bureaucracy: first, repression and firing; second, circumventing and neglecting, which means creating a "parallel state"; and third, militarization of the "civil" service.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Democratic Backsliding and Public AdministrationHow Populists in Government Transform State Bureaucracies, pp. 200 - 220Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
- 11
- Cited by