Os conselhos comunais e a proposta de reforma constitucional na Venezuela: que democracia? que desafios?

Abstract

This work looks the links between the theory of participative democracy and the Venezuelan experience in popular participation. To reach this objective, considering a global perspective, we've focused on the Communal Councils, studying this case based on other studies, political views, the law and the project of constitutional reform, voted in 2007. To develop our point, we comment on different opinions about democracy, starting with the classical idea: then, we go trough the representative democracy; and, finally, we reach the participative democracy, expressed in the Shoth experiences. The monograph also connects policy and economy, democracy and capitalism and democracy and socialism. After that, we introduce the Venezuelan context, the Communal Councils and the most important points related to popular participation on the Project of Constitutional Reform. Even though this project was rejected on a referendum, it offers us elements in based the Venezuelan experience. Finally, we cross theory and the focused case, considering two goals: characterize theorically popular participation in Venezuela and find its vulnerabilities, só that we can see what generates them and the possibilities on future for this case.