Retention of party slates and proportional representation

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Local Government Elections

• Venezuela

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Structure of the Venezuelan Municipality

• Analogous to the county in the United States
• Includes both urban and rural areas
• In early times the boundaries of the
  municipalitys built environment accommodated
  more than one city
• Now a single urban built environment often spills
  over into several municipalities

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Venezuelan Municipal Government The Tradition

• Colonial Period
• Playground for the Criollo elite
• Role in independence movement
• Post Independence decline
• Centralization
• Violence
• Recentralization under dictatorship light of
  Guzman Blanco (1870 1888)

• General José Antonio Guzmán Blanco

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Juan Vicente Gómez (1908-1935

• Personalistic Dictatorship
• Centralization of Political Power
• Distrito unit of local government
• Distrito officials appointed by the president
• Economic transformation
• Runs Venezuela like his ranch
• Cattle deals used to build the state
• Force and economic incentives ensure loyalty of
  the inner circle

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Struggle to Consolidate Post-1958 Democracy Keeps
Local Government Weak

• Leftist insurgents threaten democratic
  governments
• Centralized political parties resist
  decentralization
• Party slates and proportional representation
• Centralized political parties
• AD (Social Democrats)
• COPEI (Christian Democrats)

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Struggle to Consolidate Post-1958 Democracy
Federal District Government in Caracas

• Federal District includes part of Caracas with
  most centers of national government power
• Federal District Governor named by the president
• Close confidant of president
• Controls budget
• Controls police through office of prefect
• Municipal Council weaker than in rest of the
  country

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Municipal Reforms of 1978

• Separate municipal elections
• Soon after national elections
• Retention of party slates and proportional
  representation
• Creation of the role of city manager
• President of Municipal Council as municipal
  executive
• The situado
• Hierarchical political parties marginalize the
  city manager

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Decentralization Reforms 1989-1990(Local Level)

• Impetus economic downturn of Black Friday

• The Caracazo
• February 27, 28, 1989

• Demands to participate
• Demands for accountability
• Increasing sophistication in the interior
• Reduction in petroleum revenue

• Two days of rioting in ten cities
• 200 dead
• Dissatisfaction with rule by centralized
  political parties

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Caracazo Wake Up Call for Punto Fijo Democracy
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Municipal Reforms of 1988/1990

• Creation of office of popularly elected mayor
• Strengthening of tax powers of municipio
• Creation of elected neighborhood organizations
  (Juntas Parochiales)
• Centralized political parties retain significant
  influence
• Parties themselves not decentralized
• Party dominated national political institutions
  retain great capabilities to allocate resources

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Consequences of Municipal Reforms

• Fragmentation of the system of political parties
• National
• State local
• Government of Rafael Caldera bypasses municipio
  governments in distributing resources
• Local political machines take shape
• Political bosses are only marginally more
  responsible to local interest groups than were
  their centrally controlled predecessors
• Corruption remains a major problem
• With the exception of Caracas no efforts to
  develop metropolitan political institutions

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Local Government and the Constitution of 1999

• Government of President Hugo Chávez hostile to
  the decentralization reforms of 1989 90
• Mechanism to coordinate and respond to demands
  from local governments not created
• Following the failed coup of April 2004
  President Chavez favors Communal Councils as an
  alternative to traditional forms of local
  government

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Territorial Reforms Constitutional Referendum of
December 2007

• Territorial reform as a component of
  transformation to Twenty-First Century
  Socialism
• Division of the territory into five regions
• Missions based in national government distribute
  resources directly to the Communal Councils
• Traditional structures of local government wither
  away.