“This Cannot Fail:” Venezuela’s Communal Councils, and Chavismo’s Liminal Phase Between Popular and Rentier Mobilization

• In Event: Political Participation and Political Preferences

Abstract

‘This cannot fail’ is a particularly revealing categorical observation Hugo Chávez made in 2005 while promoting community development grants for grassroots groups. This observation, made at a government conference where Chávez personally oversaw material distribution to the grassroots-level Mesas Técnicas de Aguas, captures crucial elements of his government’s approach to mobilizing the Communal Councils—the centerpiece of the government’s programs for popular sector mobilization as of 2006. It suggests the ‘tyranny of results,’ a political analogue to what scholars of development term the ‘tyranny of urgency.’ Chávez government-promoted mobilization, a process that included material distribution as its central characteristic as of 2005, resulted in a pattern of prioritizing tangible development results over championing procedural rules premised on accountability. This paper follows three steps: it maps the tendencies in popular participation from 2000 to 2006, uses content analysis of Chávez’s participation at a government conference for distributing project grants to a national sample of Las Mesas Técnicas de Agua, and decodes state contracts to determine their relevance for the everyday management of popular sector mobilization. This analysis provides insights for situating Chávez’s ‘this cannot fail’ observation in the context of the government institutions’ implementation of a 'carrot but no stick approach' to mobilizing the Councils in 2006 and 2007.

Author

• Michael M McCarthy