Hellinger on Chavez
10.30.2006Tonight was another Clarke Center lecture at Dickinson. This one was about Venezuela & the problem of "petropolitics". The lecturer was Dan Hellinger, who's written extensively on the subject. Actually, I'm using a book he co-edited w/ Steve Ellner (Venezuelan Politics in the Chavez Era: Class, Polarization, and Conflict) in my Latin American populism course next semester. Before the lecture, I attended a dinner; we had a pleasant conversation.
The lecture was well attended. And both K8 & I found it a quite balanced treatment of the regime. Is Chavez the anti-Christ? No. And I appreciated the context he gave about the relationship between oil & politics in Venezuela since the 1920s — and particularly the development of a rentier state. In many ways, the constant flow of petrodollars into the state's coffers (oil rents make up about 50% of total state revenues) insulates Chavez' regime. He doesn't have to redistribute wealth to carry out his "Bolivarian revolution" — he just has to pump oil money into social programs.
I also appreciated the frankness w/ which Hellinger addressed some of the regime's shortcomings (he's clearly no chavista ideologue). Venezuela's participatory democracy sounds great — but dedocracia still dominates. Grass roots are supposed to nominate candidates; in reality Chavez frequently appoints them (even to small, local elections) personally. And there are clearly problems w/ the regime in terms of environmental & indigenous issues (an oil pipeline from Venezuela to Argentina through the Amazon?). It's interesting how a few in the audience were disappointed (though I appreciated his comment that we can't blame all problems in Latin America on the US because that assumes the region's people have no independent agency).
But, in the final analysis, I think it was a great presentation. Balanced, measured critical analysis. If you've a chance to read the book he co-edited, I highly recommend it. Is Chavez "just like" Peron or Fujimori? No. (Though it was interesting that Hellinger, in our private conversation, compared him to Egypt's Nasser.) The Chavez regime is, of course, complex. And just as we shouldn't base our assessment solely on how we feel about Chavez' rhetoric, we likewise shouldn't base our opinion of the regime solely on how we feel about Dubya.
Posted by Miguel at 09:48 PM
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