Chavismo’s Critical Juncture

• In Event: The Survival of Defective Democracies in the Andes

Abstract

The first paper, Michael McCarthy’s “Chavismo’s Critical Juncture,” through an examination of post-Chávez Venezuela (2012-Present), asks whether the breakdown of democracy automatically leads to authoritarianism. Enriching regime analysis by addressing ruling coalition institutionalization opens up conceptual space for classifying national political regimes in the category Linz (1973) termed an “authoritarian situation.” McCarthy unpacks the impacts of crisis and transition—in this case an historic economic depression and the government’s efforts to routinize charismatic authority amid leadership succession from Hugo Chávez to Nicolás Maduro—on political order, legitimacy, and the ruling coalition. The uncertainty that surrounds the future of Venezuela’s ongoing power struggle suggests that the concept of an authoritarian situation may better capture volatile political transitions than either the notions of authoritarianism or competitive authoritarianism, both of which imply institutionalized political regimes.

Author

• Michael M McCarthy, George Washington University