Hugo Chávez’s Political Regime a Case of Delegative Democracy?

This article is starting from the “delegative democracy” concept, originally proposed by Guillermo O’Donnell in 1994 and intent to prove the hypothesis that there are cases where delegative democracies do not start necessarily from authoritarian regimes, but can also start from what is customarily called a typical democracy. In terms of methodology, this paper will be structured around a case study typology – the analysis will focus on Venezuela and the changes brought by the Hugo Chávez’s Political Regime as proof for the hypothesis. Some of the theoretical characteristics for delegative democracy are analyzed and applied to Venezuela in an effort to prove the delegative nature of the state and its evolution to this point from a non-authoritarian, arguably more democratic background.