Venezuela, Human Rights and Participatory Democracy

Abstract

This paper explores the dynamic between the Venezuelan state, which has committed itself to a discourse on grassroots political participation, and civil society, which has responded to this call in ways that often exceed and challenge the expectations of the government. The Bolivarian process has raised Venezuelan’s expectations of the state, and its very success depends on both the actions of grassroots activists and the Chavista government. By analyzing the case of Venezuela I make three arguments concerning human rights. First, although human rights in recent years have more often than not served as a hegemonic tool of the West, they can have emancipatory potential, especially when used by social movements, as effective agents of social change. Second, in order for human rights to serve an emancipatory or counter-hegemonic function, they must be radicalized and transformed. Movements from below must drive the reconceptualization of human rights rather than powerful governments, international institutions and other top-down entities. My third argument is that the conception of the state as the sole violator of human rights or as the guarantor of human rights is a false dichotomy. While the state can be a violator of human rights, when pressured from below the state can protect its citizens from human rights abuses.