El Gran Manipulador: Political Survival, Dual Power, and the Emergence and Maintenance of Social Movements in Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela

Social movements facilitate democratic transitions. However, the understanding of the modern democracy as a firmly institutionalized system has little room for the emergence and maintenance of influential social movements. This trend is changing as leaders of democratic states in Latin America begin to identify the disfranchised as a power base. This effort to include previously marginalized groups has allowed social movements to participate more intensively in the political process, as allies of the state. The result of this alliance is a shift from a representative democracy to a participatory democracy. The purpose of this thesis to determine why, when, and how significant social movements emerge as enduring allies of political leaders in solidified democratic states. This thesis will link political decision making at the presidential level with the maintenance of significant social movements as winning coalition members. It argues that social movements are essential to the political survival of particular presidential administrations. This thesis will examine the alliance between President Hugo Chávez and Venezuela’s social movements as its case study