Along with the definition of “sui generis Bonapartism” provided by Trotsky, a key category for understanding the nature and meaning of political phenomena such as the one led by Chávez, Gramsci’s elaborations, although designed for central capitalist countries, nevertheless provide valuable elements to account for some of the main features of Chavismo – as a regime – and the deep crisis that the country is going through.
“Comprehensive State”, bankruptcy of Chavismo: lessons for the present
Milton D’Leon
As a response to the acute crisis of the previous political regime, to the irruption of the masses and as an expression of the aspirations for greater national autonomy of a sector of the Armed Forces officers. and from the middle bourgeoisie, a “Bonapartist” leadership was established that fought with imperialist capital and its governments, relying on the labor and popular movement. In this framework, in line with the “distributionist” mechanisms of public oil revenue and the broad popular leadership of Chávez, the Venezuelan State was expanding its tentacles into “civil society”, especially through a profound process of nationalization of workers, popular and peasant organizations. A process that seriously compromised the response capacity of workers and poor people when economic conditions changed and the distributionist face of the State took a backseat, with openly authoritarian and reactionary elements taking precedence.
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The “organic crisis”: between imperialist interference and the failure of Chavismo as a “great political enterprise”
The profound lack of legitimacy of the ruling regime and its institutions before the governed, the erosion of the material and moral bases of the hegemony of the dominant “historical bloc”, and the failure of an important political enterprise, are elements that are present in the decline of Chavismo and in the profound national crisis that accompanies it. This is not an occasional and conjunctural crisis but much more structural.
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Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
