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Partisanship During the Collapse of Venezuela's Party System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Jana Morgan
Jana Morgan*
Affiliation:
University of Tennessee
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Abstract

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Political parties are crucial for democratic politics; thus, the growing incidence of party and party system failure raises questions about the health of representative democracy the world over. This article examines the collapse of the Venezuelan party system, arguably one of the most institutionalized party systems in Latin America, by examining the individual-level basis behind the exodus of partisans from the traditional parties. Multinomial logit analysis of partisan identification in 1998, the pivotal moment of the system’s complete collapse, indicates that people left the old system and began to support new parties because the traditional parties failed to incorporate and give voice to important ideas and interests in society while viable alternatives emerged to fill this void in representation.

Resumo

Resumo

Los partidos políticos son cruciales para la democracia. Por ello, la creciente incidencia en el fracaso de partidos y sistemas de partidos en diferentes países ha generado en los últimos tiempos inquietud acerca del estado de la democracia en el mundo. A través del estudio cuantitativo de cambios individuales en la identificación y militancia partidaria, este artículo analiza el colapso en 1998 del sistema de partidos políticos en Venezuela, hasta entonces uno de los más institucionalizados de América Latina. Las conclusiones indican que 1998 constituyó un momento crítico en que una serie de venezolanos(as) decidieron abandonar los partidos tradicionales y apoyar a partidos nacientes. Ello fue el resultado de la incapacidad de Acción Democrática y COPEI de incorporar a segmentos importantes de la sociedad y dar voz a posiciones políticas e ideológicas distintas, así como de ofrecer alternativas viables para llenar ese déficit de representación.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , February 2007 , pp. 78 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

A previous version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, August 2003. Thanks to Evelyne Huber, Nathan Kelly, and Scott Mainwaring as well as the anonymous LARR reviewers for their helpful comments. Additionally, I recognize the contributions of José Vicente Carrasquera and Adolfo Vargas of the Universidad Simón Bolívar for providing access to RedPol98 as well as those of Félix Seijas of IVAD (Instituto Venezolano de Análisis de Datos), Luis Christiansen and Roberto Zapata of Consultores 21, Mario Acuña and Edmond Saade of DATOS, and Diane Ramsey of the University of North Carolina’s Odum Institute for providing access to the data used in constructing the partisan identification series. Funding for this research was provided by the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad program, the Pew Foundation, the Graduate School and the University Center for International Studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and a Professional Development Award from the University of Tennessee. Of course, I am ultimately responsible for the analysis and interpretations presented here.

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