商品簡介
A quick glance at the title of this collection might prompt the reader to expect this work to join in with the many denunciations of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as a dictator in embryo that are heard routinely from his political opponents and government officials in North America. In fact Ellner (U. de Oriente, Venezuela) and Salas (Latin American history, Pomona College, US) have chosen the title to reflect their critique of the longstanding myth of Venezuela as an "exceptional democracy," which is used to form Manichean views of Chavez as attacking democracy. The ten chapters they present address key themes of earlier Venezuelan political history and the democracy currently taking shape under Chavez, including social conflict and its relation to global geopolitical and economic factors, the operations of US oil companies in Venezuela, Chavismo as the search for an alternative to neoliberalism, the emergence of a new labor movement, the political economy of racism, social movements and civil society, electoral politics, and US-Venezuelan relations. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
作者簡介
Steve Ellner is professor at the Universidad de Oriente, Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela.
Miguel Tinker Salas is Arango Professor of Latin American History and Chicano/a studies at Pomona College.
