Venezuelan Politics

Provide an analytical discussion of Venezuelan politics (5 pages max), using the notes provided the readings and the short film. You are not expected to do any extra research, only use the readings and the short clip as sources.

First and most important:
1) Your introduction should have three sentences only: your thesis (your major argument in the essay), your statement of method (how your paper is organized), and your statement of significance (why the issue is important). You MUST HAVE A THESIS (SOMETHING YOU WANT TO PROVE OR DISPROVE IN YOUR ESSAY)

2) Base the essay equally on the notes provided and assigned readings, no further research is expected. You will need to have a proper balance of 50/50 between the readings and the notes provided.

3) CITE PAGE NUMBERS FROM READINGS TO DEMONSTRATE THAT YOU HAVE READ THE MATERIAL, FAILURE TO CITE PAGE NUMBERS WILL BE TAKEN TO MEAN YOU HAVE NOT READ ASSIGNED MATERIAL. Use sufficient page citations to demonstrate that you’ve read the material thoroughly.

4) Always cite the thesis of each article or book prior to mentioning anything else about it. Note the major ideas, ideological perspective and methodology. Avoid quotations, paraphrase instead.

5) Be sure to critique all views you present from the readings. Make sure you do not simply recite points from readings and lectures – strive for devoting about 50% of your discussion of the readings to your own ideas and assessments.

6) Keep citations simple with author’s name and page number in parenthesis (Smith, p.4) – please place these as ENDNOTES (at the end of your essay and not within the text or as footnotes)

7) Paragraphs must begin with a topic sentence. There should be one major idea per paragraph.

8) Proofread every sentence carefully prior to submitting the essay. Check for sentence structure (eg., proper use of commas, complete sentences), grammar (especially verb and tense agreement), and logical transition between paragraphs. You may wish to read your essay aloud to identify awkward segments

Link to the short film: https://filmclub.peasants.nz/the-revolution-will-not-be-televised/

Alan MacLeod “Chavista ‘thugs’ vs. opposition ‘civil society’: western media on Venezuela”.
This articles looks at the media in relationship to Venezuela and how the media is controlled by the forces of capital.

Yin-Hang “China and Venezuela South-South Cooperation or Rearticulated Dependency?”. This article presents a discussion of Venezuela’s’ relationship with China, and the argument is that Neodependency that is perpetuating this relationship between China and Venezuela, is perpetuating the extractive industry rather than diversification in Venezuela, and is just leading to a dependency in China rather than previous imperial powers like the US and the Britain.

Deborah L. Norden “Democracy and Military Control in Venezuela: From Subordination to Insurrection”. This article focus on the military and institutional factors. The concentration of power was in institutional factors.

‘The revolution will not be televised” CLIP
• 2002 coup that started when Chavez replaced the leader of the PDVSA (Petroleos of Venezuela) by one of his military supporters.
• Massive oil strike, 3 days strake
• Chavez put in its own people, people that knew anything about pumping oil. And dramatically it seemed to work.
• Coup in April ….. Military came and arrest Chavez in the legislature.
• Why did the coup fail? Because Chavez was still at the top. And huge redistribution was happening that made him very popular.
• Millions of people blocked the roads, in support of Chavez.
• More protest during that yea, and also a business protest.
• This coup was what really make Chavez anti Americanist. So, he pushed himself away from the US.

Ch 9 and 10 of Karl ‘Paradox of Plenty’
o Argument: Any big Petro-state will have similar kinds of governments. (Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria, etc.) Why? What are of the features that they have?
o As soon as they get money, they increase their expending, increase in debt,
o Intervention of the state regulating the oil industry.
o Dutch disease (is the apparent causal relationship between the increase in the economic development of a specific sector (for example natural resources) and a decline in other sectors)
o No much human agency in those states. No human choice.
o State bureaucracy takes money from industries and hires many people into the government, so they have a disproportionate number of personnel. But the money is coming from the oil industry.
o Tendency to overvalue their currency. So, they can get more dollars when selling oil. Imports are very cheap, but exports very expensive. Why not get cheap products and just focus in producing oil?
o Structuralism. How important are the structures and to what extent?

Space of Detention overview.
• Ongoing participation of the United States in the production and reproduction of violence in El Salvador
• Postmodern piece
• Security scape: is the transnational space produced at the nexus of youth, migration, and violence between the United States and El Salvador
o Translational, simultaneous,
• How neoliberalism is reflected in el Salvador and LA?
• Neoliberalism: less social welfare, more friendly with international corporations, individualization of people and their problems.

Venezuela’s Fragile Revolution
Criticizes Maduro, and maybe need to move to another Chavista politician