100 Great Books: (Book 19: Dragon in the Tropics: Hugo Chávez and the Political Economy of Revolution in Venezuela)
Democratic fragility
We have a meetup in Dubai tomorrow.
Dragon in the tropics may not conventionally be regarded as one of the 100 greatest books ever written, but it offers a perspective on what has been happening in Venezuela. You can, of course, catch up on all the news, but it won’t make sense unless you can trace the historical context.
Dragon in the Tropics: Hugo Chávez and the Political Economy of Revolution in Venezuela by Javier Corrales and Michael Penfold
Written against the assumption that democracy collapses only through force, Dragon in the Tropics examines how democratic systems can be dismantled legally. Corrales and Penfold analyze Venezuela’s transformation under Hugo Chávez as a process of institutional reengineering, in which elections, constitutions, and popular mandates became instruments of concentration rather than restraint. The book is a study in democratic self-subversion.
The authors’ central claim is that Venezuela did not fall because Chávez rejected democracy, but because he mastered its procedures while neutralizing its limits. Democracy survived in form while its function was quietly hollowed out.
