Another major challenge that those of us who have undertaken the noble task of managing public affairs will have to face is greater citizen participation and the effective incorporation of collective and individual expectations into the public agenda. The Venezuelan democratic model, founded on the pillars of the Punto Fijo Pact, achieved representative democratic stability through the concentration of broad powers in the hands of political and social elites. A clientelistic and patronage-based system of social negotiation led to a low-intensity citizenry, establishing patron-client relationships through the mediation of individual and collective interests and demands. However, a society that is becoming more complex due to the changes and transformations in its sociopolitical matrix, coupled with the loss of capacity to integrate and continue responding to social demands resulting from the crisis of the 1980s, calls into question the success and legitimacy of representative liberal democracy.
The transition from a representative democracy to a participatory model emerges as a viable alternative. A new citizenry founded on co-responsibility and shared governance, centered on social issues. As Lissidini (2015: 137) states, “it is not only about providing answers in terms of income distribution and redistribution, but also about redemocratizing society; that is, opening spaces for participation, channeling demands, and public deliberation. Ultimately, it is about building more inclusive, more deliberative, and politically responsible democratic institutions.”
Since 1999, Venezuela has had a new constitutional framework, where the principles of inclusion and active citizen participation defined the design of the new political regime. Mechanisms of direct consultation, social control, and co-management define a new role for citizens as active subjects and actors in shaping the nation's future. On October 18, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez announced the date for a new National Popular Consultation, a mechanism that originated in the state of Miranda with the aim of directly transferring resources to the Communes, which finance the development of projects where the entire planning cycle is carried out by the organized community itself.
Therefore, it is important to consider that implementing complementary policies aimed at strengthening and institutionally channeling citizen empowerment is a vital task. In this regard, the role of organized communities is fundamental, joining efforts to intervene in the Venezuelan sociopolitical matrix. Otherwise, we believe that community organizations and the community in general are susceptible to being co-opted by political agendas and groups with interests that are not aligned with the local community, which can operate through these instances of citizen power.
The mechanisms for controlling civil society organizations are insufficient to counteract the potential for politicization of community organizing, as well as its alignment with particular interests to the detriment of collective well-being. The political sphere is no longer defined solely by the formal structures of its exercise in society—political parties—but rather by spaces where social movements and community agendas are gaining ground. As Chantal Mouffe (2018) aptly argued, “Today, given the evolution of society, this is no longer the way we should establish political boundaries. There are a number of democratic demands that cannot be formulated in class terms—for example, it is necessary to take into account the demands of feminism, anti-racism, the gay rights movement, and environmentalism.”
References:
Mouffe, Chantal (2018), Is left-wing populism what will allow the radicalization of democracy?, in http://www.uchile.cl [Accessed: August 22, 2026]
Alicia Lissidini (2015), Direct Democracy in Latin America: Progress, Contradictions and Challenges, in: https://nuso.org/documento/democracia-directa-en-america-latina-avances-contradicciones-y-desafios/ [Accessed: August 22, 2026]
