Rethinking Venezuelan Politics: Class,

Conflict and the Chávez Phenomenon

Steve Ellner, Boulder and London, Lynne Reinner, 2009, 257pp, US$24.75 (paperback), ISBN: 978-1588266996

The arrival of Hugo Chávez on the political scene has reawakened the world to Venezuelan politics. Consequently, a
glut of substandard analysis and opinion about the man who seems to have the ability to polarise all but the most
non-partisan of commentators has appeared. However, Steve Ellner has written an exciting book that attempts to
rectify this by giving a deeper look at Venezuelan politics and political history, away from the hype that surrounds only
one man, who is only one part of a larger phenomenon.

Ellner points out that Venezuelan historical and political analysis has suffered on two fronts. Firstly, many writers have
succumbed to the ‘exceptionalism thesis’. He critiques the idea that Venezuela has been somewhat immune from
conflicts and struggles prevalent in other Latin American countries. Advocates of the exceptionalist thesis celebrate the
virtues of the two multiclass centrist parties—Democratic Action (AD), and the Committee of Independent Political
Electoral Organization (COPEI)—which shared a moderate ideological orientation and alternated power in an
exclusionary and elitist ‘pacted democracy’ for most of the second half of the twentieth century. Secondly, Ellner
argues, current analysis has focussed on ‘personalities, discourse unconnected to concrete policy, and changes of
political and state institutions, while paying less attention to social and economic dimensions’ (215). Ellner aims to set
the record straight by examining ‘issues of substance […] particularly political expressions of class and racial
cleavages’ (1). He rightly argues that the non-socioeconomic factors generally examined are insufficient to explain
Venezuelan historiography. Ellner does focus on the Chávez phenomenon, however, he argues that it cannot be
understood solely as a radical juncture in Venezuelan politics, rather, it is part of a long continuity of struggles. Hence,
the first half of this insightful book is an attempt to retell Venezuelan historiography with a focus on class and conflict,
along the way critiquing dominant views.

Hegemonic views of Venezuelan political history posited that the previous two centuries have been of factional
struggles between competing caudillos, only interspersed by the revolutions of 1945 and 1958. Ellner delves deeper
and further back than the traditional historiography. He argues that an understanding of more modern events is not
possible without reference to the nationalist and democratic struggles since the time of Chávez's idol, the liberator
Simón Bolívar. By re-examining Venezuelan political history, Ellner is able to challenge modern interpretations of
events. The historiography does not tell a straightforward story as is often argued, and is used for myth making and
‘political reasons by leaders across the political spectrum, such as Betancourt, Fuenmayor, and Chávez’ (49), all of
whom, Ellner claims, have had strong bearing on historical and political analysis. Ellner's re-telling of history leads him
to question both the AD's idealisation of the 1945 revolution and the left's dismissal of it as a mere continuation of
oligarchic rule in democratic form. This re-telling of history provides some new understanding of chavismo and the
Chávez government, arguing that they have drawn on a long history of the Venezuelan left and class struggle. Such a
re-telling especially underlines the fact those who were hostile towards puntofijismo such as La Causa Radical (in its
early stages) and the Partido Revolucionario Venezolano (Ruptura) were key in setting the stage for chavismo.

The second half of the book is dedicated to an examination of the Chávez administration in more detail. Ellner
identifies four stages in the evolution of the Chávez government and the internal debates it has generated. He argues
that there has been a progressive radicalisation of the Bolivarian revolution. However, he identifies these stages based
on issues of their policy content, and refrains from identifying the stages in terms of class conflict. This does not
provide an entirely satisfactory explanation of why the government became more radical. Even before the introduction
of radical changes, the anti-chavista opposition began to attack the government in what the Chilean writer Marta
Harnecker (who is a favourite author of the Chávez government) has called the ‘counter-revolution without a
revolution’. This, in combination with movements outside the Chávez government, has indelibly affected its
radicalisation. Ellner's discussion would also have benefited from a deeper examination of the polarisation to which
Chávez has contributed. One is essentially either a chavista or non-chavista. This is a key aspect in the formation of
identity and the dialectic of conflict under chavismo and is an overarching umbrella of Ellner's analyses.

The next two chapters make some inroads in answering the reasons behind the radicalisation of the Chávez
government. Ellner examines conflicting currents within the government, as well as the ‘top down’ versus ‘bottom up’
approaches within the Bolivarian movement. This is a key debate and one on which Ellner could have spent more time.
He concludes, rather neutrally, by arguing that the grassroots and statist elements need to coexist, ‘suggesting the
necessity of a synthesis’ (193). The balancing act that chavismo has to perform to keep the grassroots activists and
the state power happy is more tenuous than Ellner suggests, and is a key aspect in understanding the Bolivarian
revolution. The ability of chavismo to transcend the simplistic debate between taking or opposing state power in a
leftist revolution is an exciting and fascinating aspect of the phenomenon. As Ellner notes, ‘the mobilization and
concomitant sense of empowerment on the part of the popular classes’ (219) is something that is powerful and feared
by the centrist and right-wing opposition, but it is also a tight rope balancing act for the new left.

This book moves beyond the tired and myopic analyses that focus on Chávez's rhetoric. Ellner argues that his at times
over the top rhetoric is not advantageous to Chávez, especially in garnering support internationally. Ellner skilfully
does what many have failed to do before him, place Chávez within a historical and political context. This book should
be essential reading for those with an interest in recent political events in Venezuela.

Andrew John Self

La Trobe University

E-mail: ajself@students.latrobe.edu.au

© 2010, Andrew John Self