Two decades of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution: Achievements and limits

How should Venezuela’s “Bolivarian Revolution” be assessed? To answer this question this chapter analyzes the political, economic, and social record of the Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro administrations over the course of nearly two decades (1999-2017). The analysis shows that Chavismo’s record is uneven and contradictory. On the political front Chavismo challenged the boundaries of liberal democracy in ways that led to significant popular-sector empowerment, but also opened the door to democratic backsliding. On the social and economic front, Chavismo substantially improved popular-sector well-being, but in an unsustainable manner, as the deep crisis that has engulfed the country from mid-2014 through the time of writing (mid-2017) shows.