A political innovation strategy in Venezuela: the Community Councils

Abstract

Since the 1980s in Latin America, serious debates have been taking place on the topic of citizen participation and the role of the State, to promote it. The plans that justify State Reform proposals are included in the definition of public policies oriented towards the rearticulation of relationships between the State and civil society, in which citizen participation is conceived as a means to deepen democracy. In Venezuela, this process, in practice, does not achieve the real participation of citizens in decision-making without their collaboration in the execution of some tasks or the provision of a service. This panorama begins to change with the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (1999), on which public policies on citizen participation in public management are founded, with a preponderant role of the national government for its promotion. The purpose of the work is to describe formal citizen participation in the Communal Councils (CC); based on conceptual contributions, the institutional framework and some empirical references. The preliminary results reveal: 1) Approval of institutional instruments on the organization and citizen participation in public affairs. 2) Promotion of the organization of communities for decision-making, execution and control of projects, by the national executive. 3) Advances in the formal installation of CC in the country. 4) In practice, the consolidation of investment projects in areas such as housing, health, education, water, among others, by the CC is evident; However, some personal and party influences persist. 5) Support of national institutions while empowering communities for their direct participation in Councils. It is concluded that, within the framework of participatory democracy, the CC appears as a political innovation strategy for social inclusion in public interest decisions, promoted by the national government.