Grassroots Politics and Oil Culture in Venezuela : The Revolutionary Petro-State

This book is published open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book presents an ethnographic study of how grassroots activism in Venezuela during the Chávez presidency can be understood in relation to the country's history as a petro-state. Taking the contested relationship between the popular sectors and the Venezuelan state as a point of departure, Iselin Åsedotter Strønen explores how notions such as class, race, state, bureaucracy, popular politics, capitalism, neoliberalism, consumption, oil wealth, and corruption gained salience in the Bolivarian process. A central argument is that the Bolivarian process was an attempt to challenge the practices, ideas, and values inherited from Venezuela's historical development as an oil-producing state. Drawing on rich ethnographic material from Caracas' shantytowns, state institutions, as well as everyday life and public culture, Strønen explores the complexities and challenges in fostering deep social and political change. Preface 6 Notes 10 Acknowledgments 11 Contents 14 List of Figures 16 List of Tables 18 Chapter 1: Introduction 19 At an Impasse 20 Complicating the Picture 21 A Revolutionary State 22 The Lens of Oil 23 The Revolutionary Petro-state 24 The Absence of the Subalterns 25 Petroleum and People 25 Knowing Oil 27 Everyday State-Making 28 Capturing Realities 30 Life in the Barrio 31 Unbounded Barrios 34 Everyday Barrio Life 38 Structure of the Book 40 Notes 42 Bibliography 43 Chapter 2: A History Written with Oil 47 Gomez’s Rule 49 El Trienio: 1945–1948 49 The Rule of Marcos Pérez Jiménez 50 1958–1998: A Pacted Democracy 51 Locking the Political Game 52 Betancourt’s Line 53 Carlos Andrés Pérez: First Term 54 The Beginning of the End 55 The Crisis Continues 55 Pérez’s Last Round 56 Impeachment 57 Paving the Way for Chávez 57 “The Opening” 58 The Exceptionalism Myth 59 Oil, Puntofijismo and Foreign Oil 60 Shaping the Petro-State 61 The Formation of Petróleos de Venezuela S.A (PDVSA) 62 Oil and Labor 63 Re-ordering Venezuelan Society 64 Oil, Nationalism and Modernity 64 The Triad 65 Oil and Struggle in the Chávez Era 66 The People’s Oil 68 Notes 70 Bibliography 71 Audiovisuals 73 Chapter 3: Understanding the Bolivarian Revolution from Below 74 Shifting the Lens 75 The Faceless Masses 76 A History of Popular Organization 77 1960s: The Guerrilla Strategy 78 1970s: The Cultural Turn 80 1980s: The Battle Is in the Streets 81 The Hostile State: Memories from the Fourth Republic 83 Everyday Repression 88 El Caracazo 90 Oil in the Fourth Republic 95 Notes 97 Bibliography 98 Chapter 4: The Politics of Space, Race and Class 101 Manifestations of Social Inequality 106 Stratified Media Spaces 107 Cleavages Revealed 107 The Salience of Race 108 The Myth of Racial Democracy 109 Disposable Savages 110 The Poor in Velvet Seats 110 Monkeys, Marginals and Mobs 111 Civil Society and Mobs 112 The Ideology of the Resentful 113 Institutionalized Prejudices 114 Class Resentments Reversed 115 Chávez, El Presidente and El Pana1 116 Sons and Daughters of Bolívar 117 Caudillismo and Chávez’s Charisma 121 Notes 123 Bibliography 123 Chapter 5: Contested Community Politics 126 Understanding “Community” 128 The Missions 130 Steep Learning Curve 133 Communal Power 135 The Communal Councils 135 Spatial and Social Landscapes 137 Patterns and Processes 138 The Particularities of 23 de Enero 139 Under Siege 141 Ambivalent Relationship 141 From the General to the Specific 142 The Story About the Centro de Diagnostico Integral (CDI) 143 A Tale of a Stranded Project 144 The Building of the CDI 145 Finding Common Ground with the State 148 Contesting the Colectivos 153 Forging Community 156 Roundtables 159 Toward the End 163 The End of the Story 163 Community Action and the Politics of Space 165 Notes 167 Bibliography 168 Chapter 6: The State as a Battlefield 171 Theorizing the State 175 Hegemony and Practice 176 Taking over the State (?) 177 Structure, Agency and Habitus 178 Organizing Power (s) 179 Venezuelan State Practices 180 The Practice of the Palanca 181 Fiefdoms and Networks 183 The Labor Conflict in Fundacomunal 184 The Endogenous Right 185 The Fragmented State Arm 186 Chávez’s Scolding 187 The Opaqueness of the State 189 The Penetrable State 191 Drawing on Networks 193 Institutional Inertia 195 Notes 196 Bibliography 196 Chapter 7: Negotiating the Popular and the State 199 Betwixt and Between: The Promotores Integrales 201 Miriam’s Road to Revolution 202 Knowing El Pueblo 204 A Cadre for the Revolution 204 O Inventamos O Erramos 206 A Hybrid Space 207 O Inventamos O Erramos in Practice 208 Exercising Popular Power 212 Textures of Relations 215 Development from Below 217 Schools for Popular Power 219 Metis and Popular Power 220 Capturing Local Realities 222 Negotiating Power 222 The Meeting that Got Off Track 224 Negotiating Hierarchy 228 A Visit from the Mayor 228 I Want to Talk Too 230 Deflecting Criticism 231 A Contested Bolivarian Space 233 Notes 233 Bibliography 234 Chapter 8: Moralities, Money and Extractive Capitalism 237 Destructive Social Facts 239 New Moral Economies 239 Neoliberalism and the Social 240 Understanding Local Interpretations of Capitalism 241 Neoliberalism and the Social Body 242 Oil Society 244 Conspicuous Consumption in Venezuela 245 The Boom 246 The Ambivalence of Wealth 246 The Power of Conspicuous Consumption 249 Consumption in the Age of Chavismo 251 Buying on a Whim 251 Consumerism from Within 253 Sambil Society 256 Reappreciating the National-Popular 260 Counter-Cultures 260 Notes 262 Bibliography 262 Audiovisuals 265 Chapter 9: Collective Consumption and the Wealthy Nation-State 266 Repaying the Debt 269 The People’s Oil 275 The Paternalist State 276 The Legacy of Assistentialism 279 My Drop of Oil 280 Papa Government 281 New Values 283 Mi Negra 285 The Question of Oil Pathologies 286 Notes 289 Bibliography 290 Audiovisuals 291 Chapter 10: Corruption and the Extractive State 292 Anthropologies of Corruption 296 A History of Stabilized Corruption 299 The Dark Side of the Boom 300 The Class Dimension of the Rule of Law 302 Venezuelan Personhood and the Origins of Viveza 303 Reversing and Contesting the Moral Crisis 306 Negotiating Moralities 310 The Corrupt State 311 Ambivalent Moralities 313 Corruption High and Low 315 Notes 318 Bibliography 319 Chapter 11: Final Reflections: Understanding the “Revolutionary Petro-State” 321 Understanding Ideology 325 Fissures Through History 325 Venezuela’s Rise and Fall 327 The Devil’s Excrement 329 The Heterogeneity of Resource Wealth 331 A Different Curse? 334 Changing the Question 336 Final Afterthoughts 338 Notes 340 Bibliography 341 Bibliography 343 Audiovisuals 363 Index 364 This book is published open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book presents an ethnographic study of how grassroots activism in Venezuela during the Chávez presidency can be understood in relation to the country's history as a petro-state. Taking the contested relationship between the popular sectors and the Venezuelan state as a point of departure, Iselin Åsedotter Strønen explores how notions such as class, race, state, bureaucracy, popular politics, capitalism, neoliberalism, consumption, oil wealth, and corruption gained salience in the Bolivarian process. A central argument is that the Bolivarian process was an attempt to challenge the practices, ideas, and values inherited from Venezuela's historical development as an oil-producing state. Drawing on rich ethnographic material from Caracas' shantytowns, state institutions, as well as everyday life and public culture, Strønen explores the complexities and challenges in fostering deep social and political change.-- Provided by publisher Annotation This book is published open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book presents an ethnographic study of how grassroots activism in Venezuela during the Chavez presidency can be understood in relation to the country's history as a petro-state. Taking the contested relationship between the popular sectors and the Venezuelan state as a point of departure, Iselin Asedotter Stronen explores how notions such as class, race, state, bureaucracy, popular politics, capitalism, neoliberalism, consumption, oil wealth, and corruption gained salience in the Bolivarian process. A central argument is that the Bolivarian process was an attempt to challenge the practices, ideas, and values inherited from Venezuela's historical development as an oil-producing state. Drawing on rich ethnographic material from Caracas' shantytowns, state institutions, as well as everyday life and public culture, Stronen explores the complexities and challenges in fostering deep social and political change Front Matter ....Pages i-xxi Introduction (Iselin Åsedotter Strønen)....Pages 1-28 A History Written with Oil (Iselin Åsedotter Strønen)....Pages 29-55 Understanding the Bolivarian Revolution from Below (Iselin Åsedotter Strønen)....Pages 57-83 The Politics of Space, Race and Class (Iselin Åsedotter Strønen)....Pages 85-109 Contested Community Politics (Iselin Åsedotter Strønen)....Pages 111-155 The State as a Battlefield (Iselin Åsedotter Strønen)....Pages 157-184 Negotiating the Popular and the State (Iselin Åsedotter Strønen)....Pages 185-222 Moralities, Money and Extractive Capitalism (Iselin Åsedotter Strønen)....Pages 223-251 Collective Consumption and the Wealthy Nation-State (Iselin Åsedotter Strønen)....Pages 253-278 Corruption and the Extractive State (Iselin Åsedotter Strønen)....Pages 279-307 Final Reflections: Understanding the “Revolutionary Petro-State” (Iselin Åsedotter Strønen)....Pages 309-330 Back Matter ....Pages 331-357