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Comment by duxup | Hacker News Reader

The scary thing is Venezuela was doing relatively well not that long ago. I like to think democracy and a relatively good economy can keep a nation afloat and healthy to some extent ... but rather Venezuela's government has largely chosen this path in one way or another. It's kinda terrifying.

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"Voter turnout [at Venezuela's 1998 election] was 63%, and Chávez won the election with 56% of the vote. Academic analysis of the election showed that Chávez's support had come primarily from the country's poor and 'disenchanted middle class', whose standard of living had decreased rapidly over the previous decade, while much of the middle and upper class vote went to Römer.

Chávez's presidential inauguration took place 2 February 1999. He deviated from the usual words of the presidential oath when he took it, proclaiming: 'I swear before God and my people that upon this moribund constitution I will drive forth the necessary democratic transformations so that the new republic will have a Magna Carta befitting these new times.' Freedom in Venezuela suffered following 'the decision of President Hugo Chávez, ratified in a national referendum, to abolish congress and the judiciary, and by his creation of a parallel government of military cronies'. Soon after being established into office, Chávez spent much of his time attempting to abolish existing checks and balances in Venezuela. He appointed new figures to government posts, adding leftist allies to key positions and 'army colleagues were given a far bigger say in the day-to-day running of the country'."

TL; DR Institutions which should have fought back didn't and populism usurped the democracy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Chávez#First_presidential...

Thank you for that, I was just about to say. It hasn't been a democracy for quite a while.

Source: I have relatives who were born and raised in Venezuela.

I'm not sure it was 'populism' that Chavez brought so much as revolutionary socialism

>... Cuba, where he met Castro and became friends with him.[144] During his stay in Colombia, he spent six months receiving guerilla training and establishing contacts with the FARC and ELN terrorist groups, and even adopted a nom de guerre, Comandante Centeno

He may have sold it as populism, but once in power switched to dismantling democracy. It seems tricky to get rid of that stuff - the system in Cuba has been stable for years if not so good for the residents.

> I like to think democracy and a relatively good economy

You mean, not a centralized, planned economy.

It was only a good economy, in as much as government revenue was good, and in turn government services were good.

As soon as oil prices slumped, the economy started falling apart, and measures taken to mitigate the effect just made things worse.

Are you saying Venezuela is a democracy? Cause I have bad news for you...

There are many people who think their countries are "democracies" merely because they have multiple parties and hold elections. If a country's checks and balances are so weak that it can be sunk by one or two demagogues within a decade, it probably shouldn't be called a democracy regardless of its selection system.

Technically speaking there isn't any country that is a democracy. Trump just declared war on Syria, even though it's congress's job to do so, President's go above their power all the time or do things outside their role capacities via Executive actions.

America is a Republic, as is most so-called 'Democracies'. I can't wait for the first true democracy to emerge, where we use technology to cast votes.

I like the idea of where you can vote on all bills/issues/etc, or you can lend your vote to someone you trust for specific issues - like Bill Gates or Elon Musk.

See Liquid Democracy: https://medium.com/organizer-sandbox/liquid-democracy-true-d...

Not now I wouldn't.

In the past I would.

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