The Revolution in Venezuela

Thomas Ponniah and Jonathan Eastwood have produced an engaging and profoundly thought-provoking collection of essays on Venezuelas process of political and social change under the late President Hugo Chvez. The volume rises above the simplistic, and often sterile, debates over democracy versus authoritarianism, and capitalism versus socialism that Venezuelas polarized politics all too frequently elicit. Instead, its high quality analytic and theoretically-driven essays explore the consequences of Venezuelas political experiment for institutions and individuals in all of their complex, multidimensional, and contradictory nature. In carefully selecting essays that reflect the gamut of political positions, the editors invite us to confront our preconceptions, move past them, and draw our own conclusions about the impact, meaning, and legacy of Venezuelas revolution. -- Eduardo Silva * Contemporary Sociology * This excellent book makes an important contribution to the scholarly debate on the meaning of Venezuelas Bolivarian Revolution since the democratic election of Hugo Chvez to the presidency in 1998. While some scholars depict the Chvez regime as autocratic and undemocratic, others view Chvezs Venezuela as embodying 21st-century participatory democracy and socialism. Eastwood and Ponniah have assembled a collection of high-quality, well-researched essays in an attempt to overcome the polarized nature of academic debates on Chvezs Venezuela This pathbreaking book shows that the Venezuelan experience with 21st century socialism transcends the countrys borders by planting the seeds of an alternative modernity. -- M. E. Carranza * Choice *

Thomas Ponniah is Lecturer and Assistant Director of Studies in the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies, and Faculty Associate in the Program on Justice, Welfare, and Economics, Harvard University. Jonathan Eastwood is Boetsch Associate Professor of Sociology at Washington & Lee University.