Venezuela: The Life and Times of the Party System - Political ...

of behavior can also be observed within the electorate: abstention grows and political
preferences diversify as one moves from the national to the local level. Although smaller parties
and factions have attempted to exploit new electoral opportunities with great vigor, the electorate
as a whole has reacted to the changes with apathy. The party system has become more
complex, and patterns of competition and conflict are not as predictable as they once were.
Intraparty competition has been promoted by the preference voting system, which in effect gives
the electorate a key role as referee of these disputes. At the same time, interparty conflict can
now proceed on different tracks at different levels, for example with parties and voters in local or
regional contests making electoral agreements independent of national considerations.
Assessing the Reforms
Some of the electoral reforms undertaken in recent years have posed unanticipated
problems for the political order. For reforms to take root, a number of changes must be made
simultaneously in various aspects and levels of the system. One key aspect of this change is
represented by the modification of the Ley de Partidos Políticos in ways that seek to make party
organizations more participatory and more fully subject to democratic control.
Two key points are likely to affect the stability of the Venezuelan political system in the
short to medium term. The first is the erosion of credibility and legitimacy enjoyed by the political
parties, which carries over into a more general disillusionment with the political system. The
second is the deterioration in the quality of life of much of the Venezuelan population. How much
these reforms can contribute to reversing these trends remains an open question. So far, in an
environment increasingly hostile to ‘traditional parties,’ these parties have been unwilling or
unable to respond successfully. Meanwhile, new formulas for inter- and intraparty cooperation
(and conflict) are emerging.
Reform efforts often assume that the basic pillars upon which the party system was built
will remain solid, such that modifications will simply improve the status quo. But if one or more of
these pillars, such as the nonpolarized nature of ideological debate, should change, reform could
ultimately weaken the system in significant ways, creating unintended, but nonetheless real
problems of governability and political stability.
We have already noted the tendency toward divergent voting patterns at the executive
and legislative levels. This tendency is likely to grow in the future, making it harder to build the
legislative alliances necessary to govern. In the past, the political system has adjusted
successfully to situations where the party in power did not have a congressional majority. But in
a contest where new agents of political power are being created and in which there exists an
uneven balance of political forces between the national and regional levels, political power may
fragment, resulting in a systemic incapacity to produce governing alliances. Party discipline and