Nikolas Kozloff/Al Jazeera.
Even if Hugo Chavez survives a serious bout of cancer or his
preferred successor Nicolas Maduro comes to power, the possibility of
promoting truly revolutionary change in Venezuela is now dimming.
Indeed, from the very outset of his populist rule Chavez has pursued a
very heterodox political revolution, if one can even call it that. While
at times the government has allowed for so-called "participatory
democracy", such measures have more often than not been cancelled out by
centralising tendencies at the top and the perils of charismatic
leadership.
If Chavez or Foreign Minister Maduro were serious about carrying out
authentic revolutionary change, they would have devised a drastic plan
to dismantle the petro state with its bloated patronage networks and
bureaucracy and handover true power to the people. Unfortunately, Chavez
has only gone so far with his "Bolivarian Revolution", choosing instead
to limit the scope of reform lest he lose coveted political control.
To be sure, during the last presidential election Chavez campaigned
on a platform of socialist change. To his credit, the firebrand
Venezuelan leader allowed for public debate on his 2013-2019 Plan,
which, in the words of the President, is designed to "make the
revolution irreversible". Under the programme, Venezuela will ostensibly
undertake profound and systemic change intended to replace the
trappings of bourgeois democracy with the communal state.
On the surface at least, the plan sounds progressive as it will
transfer a great degree of power and resources from state governors and
mayors to so-called communes or communal councils.
