The misiones of the Chávez government

The goal of several contributors to this volume is to determine whether Chavismo and the Bolivarian Revolution are capable of creating the kind of participatory democracy the movement advocates or if instead there is some reversion to traditional forms of clientelism and top-down control. Each of these contributors affirms that the answer to this question is not an exclusive choice but is instead a matter of degree and variability. For example, they show that in many regards the movement's programs and organizations (community media, Urban Land Committees, neighborhood associations, and so on) demonstrate autonomy, but that in other areas these programs and organizations have the potential for and sometimes show signs of submitting to party bosses and Chávez himself. They also show that the strength of local identities differs across and within organizations and across time, and that financial incentives are increasingly present but vary considerably in their size and effect.