Participatory Democracy

The non-profit NGO Latinobarómetro released its annual poll surveying the development of democracies, economies, and societies in Latin America, applying attitudinal, opinion, and behavioral indicators. Its results are very eloquent regarding the Latin American people’s ideology and opinion, especially when referring to Venezuela.

"If we want to talk of socialism," says Argenis Loreto, "we must first resolve the people's most urgent needs: water in their homes, accessible health care, easy access to housing. ...the existing state cannot do this." It's essential that "the majority of the people become part of the decision-making process."

Every year, the Chilean polling firm Latinobarómetro releases a giant report on what the Latin Americans are thinking, and every year this report confuses the crap out of the English language press, who can’t seem to understand why it contradicts everything they’ve ever written about the region.

Too often, the Bolivarian Revolution currently underway in Venezuela is dismissed by its critics—on the right and left—as a fundamentally statist enterprise. These perspectives are erroneous, since they cannot account for one of the most significant developments in Venezuela: the explosion of communal power.

Over the weekend of October 26 to 27, several hundred people attended a two day conference on Worker's Management: Theory and Practice, as part of a program, "Human Development and Transformative Praxis," run by Canadian Marxist academic Michael Lebowitz at the International Miranda Center in Caracas.

Living in Caracas, Venezuela, for a year during 2006, the most striking impression one gained is of a tumultuous mass movement, in which the social energies of the people have been released in an outpouring of revolutionary enthusiasm and creativity. One was constantly reminded of Vladimir Lenin’s description of revolution as a “festival of the oppressed”.

As town square debates on Hugo Chavez's constitutional amendments rage in Venezuela, Mike Gonzalez considers whether they will deepen democracy or further centralise power.

The establishment of a disciplinary tribunal in Chavez's new socialist party before it even has statutes and structures is a worrying sign for those committed to radical democracy in Venezuela.

Led by the country’s socialist president, Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan revolution is sending shockwaves through the corporate elite both within Venezuela and internationally. The Venezuelan people are waging a struggle to gain sovereignty over the country’s natural resources in order to rebuild the nation along pro-people lines.

One of Chávez's most far-reaching experiments: community councils that, with money, government consent and popular support, could redraw the way government works in this country.