Acceso usuarios
Marc Becker
Thomas Ponniah and Jonathan Eastwood's edited volume The Revolution in Venezuela: Social and Political Change Under Chávez is an admirable attempt to bridge that divisive discursive divide. Although the authors assume a diverse range of viewpoints, the book is not constructed in terms of contrasting perspectives on Chávez’s Venezuela that reduces complex political issues to a simplistic binary of supporting and opposing positions. Pronounced perspectives emerge most clearly in the chapters by political scientist Javier Corrales who can find nothing good to say about Chávez and economist Mark Weisbrot who finds rainbows in what might otherwise be seen as dismal economic news. Other authors likewise do not shy away from taking explicit positions on the Chávez government, but their views cannot easily be laid out on a continuum from support to opposition. Rather, they approach the Bolivarian Revolution from many different perspectives, often resulting in contradictory statements and conclusions. The value in the book is not its multiple perspectives on Venezuela, but rather in how it challenges assumptions and raises new perspectives on Latin America’s turn to the left. As an entirety, the book succeeds admirably in engaging in a deeper and more sophisticated conversation of the significance and meaning of the changes taking place in Venezuela under Chávez’s presidency.
