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Antipoverty Programmes in Venezuela

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2011

ANNE DAGUERRE
ANNE DAGUERRE*
Affiliation:
The Business School, Middlesex University, Hendon, London NW4 4BT, email: a.daguerre@mdx.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article analyses Venezuelan antipoverty programmes under the presidency of Hugo Chávez, the leader of the ‘Bolivarian Revolution’ (1998–present). Support for poor people has become the government's trademark since the creation in 2002–03 of a series of emergency social programmes, the Missions. These programmes attend to the basic needs of low-income individuals in terms of nutrition, health and education. The Missions are characterised by a pattern of institutional bypassing which makes their long-term institutionalisation difficult. Do the Missions really introduce a break with previous social policies? To answer this question, we first analyse the evolution of the Venezuelan social state. Second, we review the development of the Missions, especially the Mission Vuelvan Caras, now Che Guevara, an active labour market programme. Third, we provide an assessment of the Social Missions and identify ruptures and continuities with past social assistance policies. The main contention is that the Missions exhibit a strong pattern of path dependency, despite the ideological and discursive ruptures that have attended the presidency of Hugo Chávez.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , October 2011 , pp. 835 - 852
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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