Autocratization and public administration: the revolutionary-populist regime in Venezuela in comparative perspective

ABSTRACT What happens to state bureaucracies when authoritarianism emerges? How do autocrats seek to use the administration to their ends, and how does it react? The paper analyzes Venezuela as a showcase for autocratization in Latin America. Under Chavismo-Madurismo, the general objective of the regime was to expand and co-opt all the state institutions, including public administration, to subordinate it to the “revolution” and to gain control over oil revenues. As the central aspect of the paper, we will analyse the strategies of the Chavista governments vis á vis the administration to achieve these goals. We identify three main strategies that were used to sideline the bureaucracy: repression and firing; circumventing and neglecting; and militarisation. With these strategies, Chavismo-Madurismo dismantled the former existing public administration and installed a new administration, loyal to the regime, as a part of the process of autocratization. The paper also addresses how the autocratic regime has (mis)used the public management of the Covid-pandemic to strengthen autocracy under the disguise of a state of emergency.