Venezuela’s Communes: Not as Radical as You Might Think

1 Kennis, Andrew “The Quiet Revolution: Venezuelans Experiment wth Participatory Democracy,” Venezuelanalysis.com, 2010, http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5558.

2 “Venezuela's politics: Commune-ism,” The Economist, 2010, http://www.economist.com/node/16595071.

3 Giusti, Roberto “Ley de Comunas amenaza la democracia,” La Prensa (Managua, July 5, 2010), sec. Internacionales:12A, http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2010/07/05/internacionales/30342.

4Lerner, Josh “Communal Councils in Venezuela: Can 200 Families Revolutionize Democracy?,” Venezuelanalysis.com, 2007, venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2257.

5 For example, see "“Consejos comunales de Monagas reciben recursos para desarrollar hábitat,” Agencia Venezolana de Noticias, 2010, http://www.avn.info.ve/node/9159, “ONA y consejos comunales impulsan lucha contra la drogas con más deporte,” Agencia Venezolana de Noticias, 2010, http://www.avn.info.ve/node/12458, and Trujillo: Mas de BS.F 40 milliones fueron destinados a proyectos de vivienda,” Radio Nacional de Venezuela, 2010, http://www.rnv.gov.ve/noticias/index.php?act=ST&f=19&t=135162.

6 López, Jaime “Venezuela aprueba la primera ley sobre comunas y busca legalizar el trueque,” El Mundo, 2010, http://www.elmundo.es/america/2010/06/23/venezuela/1277310400.html. and Kennis 2010. The former article cites 11,761 councils. The later cites 30,179 (with 500 more moving through the registration process).
7 Kennis 2010

8 López 2010.

9 For example, see “PCV niega que con nuevas leyes se implante comunismo,” El Tiempo, 2010, http://www.eltiempo.com.ve/noticias/default.asp?id=340144.

10 López 2010.

11 “Venezuela's politics: Commune-ism,” The Economist, 2010, http://www.economist.com/node/16595071.

12 Baicocchi 2003, Dennisi Rodgers,, Subverting the Spaces of Invitation? Local Politics and Participatory Budgeting in Post-Crisis in Buenos Aires (London: Crisis States Research Center, 2005), and Yves Cabannes, “Participatory budgeting: a significant contribution to participatory democracy,” Environment and Urbanization 16, no. 27 (2004): 27-46. See Cabannes 2004 for a full list of the Latin American cities in which participatory budgeting programs have been tried, and details on each program.

13 Forero, Juan “Venezuela Lets Councils Bloom,” The Washington Post, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/16/AR2007051602547.html and Pearson, Tamara, “Venezuela’s Reformed Communal Council Law: When Laws Aren’t Just for Lawyers and Power Is Public,” Venezuelanalysis.com, 2009, http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4980.

14 Pascal Fletcher, “Chavez communes stoke Venezuela democracy debate,” Reuters, 2010, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66E7E420100715.

15 Ibid. and Pascal Fletcher, “Chavez communes stoke Venezuela democracy debate,” Reuters, 2010, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66E7E420100715.

16 López 2010

17 Baiocchi, Gianpaolo, “Participation, Activism, and Politics: The Porto Alegre Experiment,” in Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Empowered Particpatory Governance, ed. Archon Fung and Erik Olin Wright, The Real Utopias Project (New York: Verso, 2003), 45-76.

18 Baiocchi 2003.

19 Baiocchi 2003.

20 A number of other studies have supported the conclusion that the Brazilian paticipatory budger process has been overwhelmingly positive for its community. For example, see Leonora angeles, “Democratizing Regional Govenrance: Constraints and Opportunities for Brazilian and Other Metropolitan Regions in Latin America” (presented at the Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Rio De Janeiro, June 11, 2009), Benjamin Goldfrank “Lessons from Latin American Experience in Particpatory Budgeting” (presented at the Latin American Studies Association Meeting, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 2006), Frank Fischer, Participatory Governance, Jerusalem Papers in Regulation and Governance (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Forum on Regulation and Governance, 2010), and Participatory Governance and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Economic and Social Affairs (New York: United Nations, 2008).

21 Baicocchi 2003, Dennis Rodgers, Subverting the Spaces of Invitation? Local Politics and Participatory Budgeting in Post-Crisis in Buenos Aires (London: Crisis States Research Center, 2005), and Yves Cabannes, “Participatory budgeting: a significant contribution to participatory democracy,” Environment and Urbanization 16, no. 27 (2004): 27-46. See Cabannes 2004 for a full list of the Latin American cities in which particpatory budgeting programs have been tried, and details on each program.

22 Goldfrank 2006.
23 Fischer 2010.