Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8bljj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-01T09:35:44.774Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Economic Pressure Groups and Policy-Making in Venezuela: The Case of FEDECAMARAS Reconsidered

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2022

René Salgado*
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This article will focus on the interactions between the Venezuelan government and FEDECAMARAS, the umbrella organization of most Venezuelan private-sector groups, while a strategic policy was being formulated and implemented that FEDECAMARAS regarded as seriously detrimental to the interests of the Venezuelan private sector. This policy was developed after the official devaluation of the Venezuelan bolívar on 18 February 1983 and consisted of two stages: first, the government refused to supply foreign currency at the rate of 4.3 bolívares to the dollar, the predevaluation rate (PDR), for any foreign debts contracted by private enterprises prior to 18 February, a decision that forced many debtor companies to obtain foreign currency at the floating rate. This rate increased from approximately 8 bolívares to the dollar in March 1983 to some 25 to the dollar in late 1986. Second, the government imposed a price freeze and then price controls. This policy, which was simultaneously regulatory and redistributive, was vehemently opposed by FEDECAMARAS. Yet the results of the organization's efforts indicate that its actual influence has been overstated.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

I wish to thank three anonymous LARR reviewers and Alberto Mansueti of Compañía Gallup in Caracas for their helpful comments on an earlier draft. Also, sincere thanks to Professor Kenneth M. Coleman of the University of Kentucky, visiting professor at the Universidad Simón Bolívar in Venezuela when the draft was being revised. He made many useful suggestions on style and substance.

References

Acedo, Clemy Machado De 1981El estado y su papel en la conformación de la sociedad capitalista venezolana.” In Estado y grupos económicos en Venezuela, edited by de Acedo, Clemy Machado. Caracas: Ateneo.Google Scholar
Bigler, Gene E. 1981 La política y el capitalismo de estado en Venezuela. Madrid: Tecnos.Google Scholar
Bond, Robert D. 1975Business Associations and Interest Politics in Venezuela: The FEDECAMARAS and the Determination of National Economic Policies.” Ph.D. diss., Vanderbilt University.Google Scholar
Combellas, Ricardo 1973La actuación de FEDECAMARAS y de la CTV ante la reforma tributaria de 1966.” Politeia 2:301–23.Google Scholar
Crazut, Rafael J. 1980 El Banco Central de Venezuela: notas sobre su historia y evolución, 1940–1980. Caracas: Banco Central de Venezuela.Google Scholar
Echevarria, Oscar A. 1984a La crisis económica de Venezuela. Caracas: UCAB.Google Scholar
Echevarria, Oscar A. 1984b La economía venezolana, 1944–1984. Caracas: Editorial Arte.Google Scholar
French, John R. P. JR. 1956A Formal Theory of Social Power.” Psychological Review 63, no. 3:181–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gil Yepes, Jose A. 1978 El reto de las elites. Madrid: Tecnos.Google Scholar
Hunter, Floyd 1980 Community Power Succession: Atlanta's Policy Makers Revisited. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Naim, Moises 1970Un marco conceptual para el análisis de la implementación de políticas públicas.” Politeia 8:734 (annual publication of the Instituto de Estudios Políticos, UCV).Google Scholar
Naim, Moises 1984La empresa privada en Venezuela: ¿Qué pasa cuando se crece en medio de la riqueza y la confusión?” In El caso Venezuela: una ilusión de armonía, edited by M. Naim and R. Piñango, 152–82. Caracas: Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración.Google Scholar
Nakamura, Robert T., and Smallwood, Frank 1980 The Politics of Policy Implementation. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Njaim, Humberto 1975La regulación constitucional de los grupos de presión: la crisis de los consejos económicos-sociales ilustrada por el caso venezolano.” Politeia 4:87108.Google Scholar
Reven, B. H., and Kruglanski, W. 1975Conflict and Power.” In The Structure of Conflict, edited by Swingle, P. G., 177219. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Rogers, Mary F. 1973Instrumental and Infra-Resources: The Bases of Power.” American Journal of Sociology 79:1418–33.Google Scholar
Scott, J. C. 1970Corruption, Machine Politics, and Political Change.” In Political Corruption: Readings in Comparative Analysis, edited by Leimer, Arnold J. Heiden. New York: Holt, Reinhart, and Winston.Google Scholar
Selznick, Philip 1952Cooptation: A Mechanism for Organizational Stability.” In Reader in Bureaucracy, edited by Merton, Robert K., Gray, Alisa P. Huckey, Barbara, and Selvin, Hanan C. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar