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Authoritarian Survival: Why Maduro Hasn't Fallen
- Journal of Democracy
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 31, Number 3, July 2020
- pp. 39-53
- 10.1353/jod.2020.0044
- Article
- Additional Information
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Abstract:
The autocratic regime in Venezuela has survived despite a multitude of crises. It has done so by relying on classic autocratic tools, but also by deploying what I call "function fusion": granting existing institutions the ability to perform a variety of functions typically reserved for other institutions. The military is acquiring civilian and business functions; organized civilian groups have been given the function of conducting quasi-military operations; a constituent assembly has acquired the function of legislature and ruling party combined; and the state is sharing sovereignty with foreign armed forces and criminal gangs. The regime is adapting the concept of multitasking in the service of twenty-first–century authoritarianism. This is a risky strategy, but so far it has allowed the regime to maintain its repressive rule and keep its coalition intact.