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A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S This study would not have been possible without the initial support and assistance of many institutions and individuals. The Research Semester Award from the dean of the Harpur College of Arts and Sciences gave me the time to launch this project. David Smilde offered instructive comments and encouragement to push forward early on. The participants at the Contentious Politics Workshop in New York City helped steer this project, at the time of its inception, toward some of the more fruitful lines of inquiry. The Program on Latin America and the Caribbean at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Public Affairs hosted me as a visiting research scholar one semester and provided a hospitable intellectual environment in which to develop a plan for research. I conducted my initial research in Venezuela with financial assistance from the dean of the Harpur College of Arts and Sciences and the United University Professionals’ Individual Development Award at Binghamton University. Angelo RiveroSantos , then at Georgetown University, and Rodolfo Magallanes of the Universidad Central de Venezuela shared valuable insights on Venezuelan politics that informed my research plan. Magallanes helped me make numerous contacts once I arrived in Caracas. Many others also assisted in this way, including David Holiday, Hilary Abell, Nancy Appelbaum, Maria Cook, Juanita Diaz, Ricardo Laremont, and David Smilde. A Fulbright Scholar award made it possible for me to conduct research for ten months in Caracas.While in Caracas, the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) and the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA) hosted me. At UCV, I was affiliated with the graduate program in social sciences of the Facultad de Economía y Ciencias Sociales (FACES) thanks to Trino Márquez,Antonio deVenanzi, and Rafael Ramírez. DeVenanzi helped establish my connection with the UCV and has since become a trusted critic of my work. At IESA, I became an affiliate of the public policy division of the school thanks to Rosa Amelia González. IESA generously provided office space and a congenial intellectual community. The library staff at IESA worked tirelessly on my xi behalf, dredging up obscure government documents and scouring the extensive archive for relevant works. I am especially grateful to Francisco Monaldi for his help with coding some of the political biographies, to Maximiliano González for sharing his database on board membership of publicly traded companies, and to Rosa Amelia González for sharing her list of all cabinet members. The students at both the UCV and IESA kept me on my toes and helped to sharpen my understanding of Venezuelan political life. My research was made infinitely more efficient and enjoyable by several research assistants. I owe a huge debt to Clara Serfaty, who helped in particular with the database of political biographies. Her ingenuity and careful attention to detail have made the database so much better than it would have been without her. I am grateful to her for tolerating my wavering on coding decisions and my many long e-mails detailing an ever-expanding list of tasks to improve the database and, finally, for her friendship. The librarian, Edie Cardenas, at the Biblioteca Nacional facilitated data collection by allowing me to review and copy her private archive of biographies on and curriculum vitae of prominent political leaders. Joanna Borges also provided valuable assistance, helping to collect and code a sample of newspaper articles from which I constructed the corruption scandals database. The obliging staff at the Hemeroteca (the newspaper archive) of the Biblioteca Nacional cheered Joanna and me on in the otherwise tedious task of reviewing the reels of microfilmed newspapers. I would especially like to thank all those who agreed to be interviewed. I appreciate, in particular, the business leaders who went out of their way to help me identify and contact others in the business community. Without their assistance , I would not have been able to glean the insider’s perspective of the calculus that business leaders use during presidential campaigns, which informed chapters  and . I am particularly indebted to each member of the business community who took the time to review my list of nearly two thousand federal legislators. Similarly, I am grateful to the campaign insiders, those individuals who had close ties to Hugo Chávez during the  presidential campaign and who agreed to meet with me. Their descriptions of the campaign and their willingness to...

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