![]() This cultural context is scarcely compatible with the model of citizenship associated with liberal democracies of the West. Alejandro Moreno (1995) characterizes this other cultural universe as the popular-life world that is other, different from Western modernity – organized in terms of a matriarchal family structure, with different conceptions of time, work, and community, and a relational (community-oriented) rationality distinct from the abstract rationality of the dominant society. The result was the development of what Ivez Pedrazzini and Magalay Sánchez (1992) have called the "culture of urgency." They describe a practical culture of action in which the informal economy, illegality, illegitimacy, violence and mistrust of official society are common. We are dealing here not with the exclusion of a minority categorized as "marginal" in relation to society as a whole but with the living conditions and cultural reproduction of the great majority of the population. These crises-like conditions increasingly became permanent features of society. ![]() The threat represented by the "dangerous class" came to occupy a central place in the media – along with demands that drastic measures be taken, including the death penalty or direct execution by the police.ĭuring this period, the prospect of a reasonably comfortable life for most Venezuelans, which had appeared attainable in the 1970s, became increasingly remote poverty and exclusion appeared inescapable for many. Countless streets in the middle- and upper-class neighborhoods were closed and privatized increasingly, bars and electric fences surrounded houses and buildings in these areas. Between 19 the number of homicides per 10,000 inhabitants jumped from 13.4 to 56, an increase of 418 percent, with most of the victims being young males (San Juan, 1997: 232–233). Along with unemployment, personal safety topped the problems perceived as most serious by the population. very distinct from the culture of tolerance and peace that dominated Venezuelan society in the past." (Briceño León et al., 1997: 213). Class division intensified, as summarised by Edgardo Lander: Ī sensation of insecurity became generalized throughout the population, constituting "an emerging culture of violence. . . "Per capita income in 1997 was 8 percent less than in 1970 workers' income during this period was reduced by approximately half." Īlong with these economic changes came various changes in Venezuelan society. The negative trend continued through the 1990s. However, "toward the end of the 1970s, these tendencies began to reverse themselves." Per capita oil income and per capita income both declined, leading to a foreign debt crisis and forced devaluation of the bolivar in 1983. Venezuelan workers enjoyed the highest wages in Latin America and subsidies in food, health, education and transport. This was partly due to the ruling AD and COPEI parties' investing in social welfare projects which, because of the government's oil income, they could do without heavily taxing private wealth. The 1970s were boom years for oil, during which the material standard of living for all classes in Venezuela improved. Oil accounts for three-quarters of Venezuela's exports, half of its government's fiscal income, and a quarter of the nation's GDP. Venezuela's economic well-being fluctuated with the unstable demand for its primary export commodity, oil. Hugo Chávez's political activity began in the 1980s and 1990s, a period of economic downturn and political upheaval in Venezuela. Instead of continuing Venezuela's past alignment with the United States and European strategic interests, Chávez promoted alternative development and integration policies targeted to the Global South.Ĭhávez died in office on 5 March 2013 and was succeeded by his Vice President Nicolás Maduro, who gained a slim majority in the 14 April 2013 special election and has ruled by decree for the majority of the period between 19 November 2013 through 2018. Then- President Hugo Chávez dramatically shifted Venezuela's traditional foreign policy alignment. Since 2 February 1999, Venezuela saw sweeping and radical shifts in social policy, moving away from the last government's officially embracing a free-market economy and liberalization reform principles and towards income redistribution and social welfare programs.
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