DEMOCRACY IN VENEZUELA:
The 2008 Latinobarómetro
Poll
Latinobarómetro
is a poll measuring attitudes toward democracy in Latin
America that is conducted annually by the respected Chilean
polling firm known by the same name. Its newest survey, released on November
14, 2008, contains many important findings about Venezuela.[1]
The
numbers show a picture of a country in which democracy is strongly valued,
confidence in democratic institutions is higher than in most of the region, and
the rights of political participation are both enjoyed and taken seriously.
These facts bring a level of detailed analysis to the political realities of Venezuela that
is rarely available in the media.
Latinobarómetro
2008 finds that Venezuela
has the region’s highest rate of support for democracy as the best system of
government, and the second highest rate of satisfaction with the actual
functioning of democracy. Satisfaction with democracy has shot up by 14
percentage points over a decade ago, when President Chávez was first elected.
While Venezuela
ranked two percentage points below the regional average on this issue in 1998,
it is 12 points ahead of the regional average in 2008.
In the poll, Venezuelans
were the most likely among all Latin Americans to view voting as the best way
to affect political change. A full 80 percent held this view, compared to 55
percent in Chile.
Venezuelans were by far the least likely to agree that it is impossible to
influence political change, while Chileans were the most likely to agree.
Meanwhile, though fifteen percent of Venezuelans said they had attended a
protest, this country was the second-to-least likely to express the view that
political change is best sought by protesting. This indicates a high level of
confidence in official channels for political participation.
Accordingly, institutions
are viewed as an essential to democracy. The survey found that Venezuelans were
the second most likely in the region to agree that democracy cannot exist
without political parties, and the third most likely to express confidence in
political parties and to agree that political parties are “doing a good job.”
They were the third most likely to state that democracy cannot exist without
congress. Venezuela is 8
percentage points above the regional average on this point, far ahead of
countries like Chile (8th), Mexico (12th), and Brazil (15th). Venezuela’s confidence in the congress is also
high, ranked third in the region, far above Argentina
(10th), Colombia (11th), and
Costa Rica
(12th).
Insights into the economy of
Venezuela
registered in the 2008 Latinobarómetro poll also challenge many of the dominant
assumptions about the country that appear in the media.
For example, among Latin
Americans, Venezuelans are the least likely to express concern about the effect
of rising food prices on family wellbeing. They expressed second highest rate
of confidence in the banks, and the third highest rate of confidence in private
companies. Venezuelans stood out in the region for being the least likely to
agree that tax evasion is morally justifiable. The expectation that economic
conditions would improve – both for individuals and for the country as a whole
– within the next year was measured as fourth highest in the region. According
to the poll, concerns about the economy did not trump political ones in Venezuela;
respondents there were the least likely in the region to say that they would
support an authoritarian government if it solved economic problems.
One of the most important
findings of Latinobarómetro is that Venezuela leads the region in the
belief that democracy has helped to diminish social inequalities, narrowing the
gap between the rich and the poor. Accordingly, fewer people in Venezuela than
any other country believe that inequalities have merely stayed the same under
democratic governance.
As one of the
longest-standing democracies in the region, Venezuela has undergone significant
political shifts. In the last decade, successive electoral victories for
President Chávez have put the country on a new course that has seen rising
rates of preference for democracy as a system of government as well as higher
satisfaction with how democracy actually functions. Confidence in the
institutions essential to democracy – such as political parties, congress, and
the electoral system – is also comparatively quite high.
Perhaps part of this
satisfaction comes from the fact that Venezuelans, more than citizens in any
other country in Latin America, believe that democracy has served to diminish
social inequalities. This is no small achievement in the region of the world
with the widest gap between the rich and the poor.