Looking to the State by its social configuration: an ethnographic study of Caracas’ local administrations.

• In Event: Etnografìas del Estado en Venezuela: soberanías populares, formas de gobierno y disputas por la hegemonía

Abstract

In Venezuela’s administration, the participatory norm (CARREL 2013, GARIBAY 2015) has ben translated by the creation of different forms of public action which official aim is to govern with and/or by the public. In the building of this system, interpretations have gone from the creation of Ministries’ antennas advocated specifically to the contact with the public, until the transfer of capacities through the form of “Consejos Comunales” and “Comunas”. These options are frequently problematized not only by the idea of participation, but also by the concern of enhancing localized governing, their combination being seen as way of improving popular democracy.

When observing these different apparatus, one is able to see a constant circulation of people from social movements to local administrations, and the places in between. It becomes possible to see an active network that acts as courtiers (MASSARDIER et
al. 2012) sustaining the participatory and localized governing by the dynamics built from its multiple social roles. This contribution aims to look at the social configuration of this network as a way of understanding the building of the local governing system. Defined by the tension between State’s legitimacy and autonomous power, the courtiers are an expression of the dilemmas behind Venezuela’s State building of today.

Author

• Yoletty Bracho