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The Enduring Legacy

Author : Miguel Tinker Salas
Publisher : Duke University Press
ISBN 13 : 0822392232
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (223 download)

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Book Synopsis The Enduring Legacy by : Miguel Tinker Salas

Download or read book The Enduring Legacy written by Miguel Tinker Salas and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2009-05-11 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oil has played a major role in Venezuela’s economy since the first gusher was discovered along Lake Maracaibo in 1922. As Miguel Tinker Salas demonstrates, oil has also transformed the country’s social, cultural, and political landscapes. In The Enduring Legacy, Tinker Salas traces the history of the oil industry’s rise in Venezuela from the beginning of the twentieth century, paying particular attention to the experiences and perceptions of industry employees, both foreign and Venezuelan. He reveals how class ambitions and corporate interests combined to reshape many Venezuelans’ ideas of citizenship. Middle-class Venezuelans embraced the oil industry from the start, anticipating that it would transform the country by introducing modern technology, sparking economic development, and breaking the landed elites’ stranglehold. Eventually Venezuelan employees of the industry found that their benefits, including relatively high salaries, fueled loyalty to the oil companies. That loyalty sometimes trumped allegiance to the nation-state. North American and British petroleum companies, seeking to maintain their stakes in Venezuela, promoted the idea that their interests were synonymous with national development. They set up oil camps—residential communities to house their workers—that brought Venezuelan employees together with workers from the United States and Britain, and eventually with Chinese, West Indian, and Mexican migrants as well. Through the camps, the companies offered not just housing but also schooling, leisure activities, and acculturation into a structured, corporate way of life. Tinker Salas contends that these practices shaped the heart and soul of generations of Venezuelans whom the industry provided with access to a middle-class lifestyle. His interest in how oil suffused the consciousness of Venezuela is personal: Tinker Salas was born and raised in one of its oil camps.

Crude Nation

Author : Raúl Gallegos
Publisher : Potomac Books
ISBN 13 : 1640122133
Total Pages : 262 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (41 download)

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Book Synopsis Crude Nation by : Raúl Gallegos

Download or read book Crude Nation written by Raúl Gallegos and published by Potomac Books. This book was released on 2019-09-01 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beneath Venezuelan soil lies an ocean of crude—the world’s largest reserves—an oil patch that shaped the nature of the global energy business. Unfortunately, a dysfunctional anti-American, leftist government controls this vast resource and has used its wealth to foster voter support, ultimately wreaking economic havoc. Crude Nation reveals the ways in which this mismanagement has led to Venezuela’s economic ruin and turned the country into a cautionary tale for the world. Raúl Gallegos, a former Caracas-based oil correspondent, paints a picture both vivid and analytical of the country’s economic decline, the government’s foolhardy economic policies, and the wrecked lives of Venezuelans. Without transparency, the Venezuelan government uses oil money to subsidize life for its citizens in myriad unsustainable ways, while regulating nearly every aspect of day-to-day existence in Venezuela. This has created a paradox in which citizens can fill up the tanks of their SUVs for less than one American dollar while simultaneously enduring nationwide shortages of staples such as milk, sugar, and toilet paper. Gallegos’s insightful analysis shows how mismanagement has ruined Venezuela again and again over the past century and lays out how Venezuelans can begin to fix their country, a nation that can play an important role in the global energy industry. This paperback edition features a new introduction by the author.

The Magical State

Author : Fernando Coronil
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226116013
Total Pages : 480 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (16 download)

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Book Synopsis The Magical State by : Fernando Coronil

Download or read book The Magical State written by Fernando Coronil and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1997-11-10 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1935, after the death of dictator General Juan Vicente Gómez, Venezuela consolidated its position as the world's major oil exporter and began to establish what today is South America's longest-lasting democratic regime. Endowed with the power of state oil wealth, successive presidents appeared as transcendent figures who could magically transform Venezuela into a modern nation. During the 1974-78 oil boom, dazzling development projects promised finally to effect this transformation. Yet now the state must struggle to appease its foreign creditors, counter a declining economy, and contain a discontented citizenry. In critical dialogue with contemporary social theory, Fernando Coronil examines key transformations in Venezuela's polity, culture, and economy, recasting theories of development and highlighting the relevance of these processes for other postcolonial nations. The result is a timely and compelling historical ethnography of political power at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary reflections on modernity and the state.

The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela

Author : Dan Kovalik
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1510750738
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela by : Dan Kovalik

Download or read book The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela written by Dan Kovalik and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-06-25 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An in-depth look at the US threat to "save" Venezuela Since 1999 when Hugo Chavez became the elected president of Venezuela, the US has been conniving to overthrow his government and to roll back the Bolivarian Revolution which he ushered in to Venezuela. With the untimely death of Hugo Chavez in 2013, and the election of Nicolas Maduro that followed, the US redoubled its efforts to overturn this revolution. The US is now threatening to intervene militarily to bring about the regime change it has wanted for twenty years. While we have been told that the US’s efforts to overthrow Chavez and Maduro are motivated by altruistic goals of advancing the interests of democracy and human rights in Venezuela, is this true? The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela answers this question with a resounding “no,” demonstrating that: The US’s interests in Venezuela have always centered upon one and only one thing: Venezuela’s vast oil reserves; The US has happily supported one repressive regime after another in Venezuela to protect its oil interests; Chavez and Maduro are not the “tyrants” we have been led to believe they are, but in fact have done much to advance the interests of democracy and economic equality in Venezuela; What the US and the Venezuelan opposition resent most is the fact that Chavez and Maduro have governed in the interest of Venezuela’s vast numbers of poor and oppressed racial groups; While the US claims that it is has the humanitarian interests of the Venezuelan people at heart, the fact is that the US has been waging a one-sided economic war against Venezuela which has greatly undermined the health and living conditions of Venezuelans; The opposition forces the US is attempting to put into power represent Venezuela’s oligarchy who want to place Venezuela’s oil revenues back in the hands of Venezuela’s economic elite as well as US oil companies. The battle for Venezuela which is now being waged will determine the fate of all of Latin America for many years to come. The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela lets readers know what is at stake in this struggle and urges readers to reconsider which side they are on.

Venezuela Before Chávez

Author : Ricardo Hausmann
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271064641
Total Pages : 549 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Venezuela Before Chávez by : Ricardo Hausmann

Download or read book Venezuela Before Chávez written by Ricardo Hausmann and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-06-13 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the beginning of the twentieth century, Venezuela had one of the poorest economies in Latin America, but by 1970 it had become the richest country in the region and one of the twenty richest countries in the world, ahead of countries such as Greece, Israel, and Spain. Between 1978 and 2001, however, Venezuela’s economy went sharply in reverse, with non-oil GDP declining by almost 19 percent and oil GDP by an astonishing 65 percent. What accounts for this drastic turnabout? The editors of Venezuela Before Chávez, who each played a policymaking role in the country’s economy during the past two decades, have brought together a group of economists and political scientists to examine systematically the impact of a wide range of factors affecting the economy’s collapse, from the cost of labor regulation and the development of financial markets to the weakening of democratic governance and the politics of decisions about industrial policy. Aside from the editors, the contributors are Omar Bello, Adriana Bermúdez, Matías Braun, Javier Corrales, Jonathan Di John, Rafael Di Tella, Javier Donna, Samuel Freije, Dan Levy, Robert MacCulloch, Osmel Manzano, Francisco Monaldi, María Antonia Moreno, Daniel Ortega, Michael Penfold, José Pineda, Lant Pritchett, Cameron A. Shelton, and Dean Yang.

Culture as Renewable Oil

Author : Penélope Plaza Azuaje
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351330497
Total Pages : 243 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (513 download)

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Book Synopsis Culture as Renewable Oil by : Penélope Plaza Azuaje

Download or read book Culture as Renewable Oil written by Penélope Plaza Azuaje and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-18 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book unpacks the links between oil energy, state power, urban space and culture, by looking at the Petro-Socialist Venezuelan oil state. It challenges the disciplinary compartmentalisation of the analysis of the material and cultural effects of oil to demonstrate that within the Petrostate, Territory, Bureaucratic Power and Culture become indivisible. To this end, it examines how oil is a cultural resource, in addition to a natural resource, implying therefore that struggles over culture implicate oil, and struggles over oil implicate culture. This book develops a story about Venezuela as an oil state and the way it deploys its policies to instrumentalise culture and urban space by examining the way Petro-Socialism manifests in space, how it is imagined in speeches and how it is discursively constructed in adverts. The discussion reveals how a particular culture is privileged by the Venezuela state-owned oil company and its social and cultural branch. The book explores to what effect the state-owned oil company constructs a parallel notion of culture that becomes inextricable from land, akin to a mineral deposit, and tightly controlled by the Petrostate. The book will appeal to researchers who are interested in Resource Management, Environmental Studies, Cultural Studies and Political Geography.

Juan Vicente Gómez and the Oil Companies in Venezuela, 1908-1935

Author : B. S. McBeth
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521892186
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (921 download)

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Book Synopsis Juan Vicente Gómez and the Oil Companies in Venezuela, 1908-1935 by : B. S. McBeth

Download or read book Juan Vicente Gómez and the Oil Companies in Venezuela, 1908-1935 written by B. S. McBeth and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-04-04 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book examines the relationship between Gómez's government and the oil companies.

From Windfall to Curse?

Author : Jonathan Di John
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271076909
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis From Windfall to Curse? by : Jonathan Di John

Download or read book From Windfall to Curse? written by Jonathan Di John and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-12-21 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the discovery of abundant oil resources in the 1920s, Venezuela has had an economically privileged position among the nations of Latin America, which has led to its being treated by economic and political analysts as an exceptional case. In her well-known study of Venezuela’s political economy, The Paradox of Plenty (1997), Stanford political scientist Terry Karl argued that this oil wealth induced extraordinary corruption, rent-seeking, and centralized intervention that resulted in restricting productivity and growth. What this and other studies of Venezuela’s economy fail to explain, however, is how such conditions have accompanied both growth and stagnation at different periods of Venezuela’s history and why countries experiencing similar levels of corruption and rent-seeking produce divergent developmental outcomes. By investigating the record of economic development in Venezuela from 1920 to the present, Jonathan Di John shows that the key to explaining why the economy performed much better between 1920 and 1980 than in the post-1980 period is to understand how political strategies interacted with economic strategies—specifically, how politics determined state capacity at any given time and how the stage of development and development strategies affected the nature of political conflicts. In emphasizing the importance of an approach that looks at the political economy, not just at the economy alone, Di John advances the field methodologically while he contributes to a long-needed history of Venezuela’s economic performance in the twentieth century.

Venezuela

Author : Miguel Tinker Salas
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199790531
Total Pages : 265 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

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Book Synopsis Venezuela by : Miguel Tinker Salas

Download or read book Venezuela written by Miguel Tinker Salas and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-02 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the top ten oil exporters in the world and a founding member of OPEC, Venezuela currently supplies 11 percent of U.S. crude oil imports. But when the country elected the fiery populist politician Hugo Chavez in 1998, tensions rose with this key trading partner and relations have been strained ever since. In this concise, accessible addition to Oxford's What Everyone Needs to Know® series, Miguel Tinker Salas -- a native of Venezuela who has written extensively about the country -- takes a broadly chronological approach that focuses especially on oil and its effects on Venezuela's politics, economy, culture, and international relations. After an introductory section that discusses the legacy of Spanish colonialism, Tinker Salas explores the "The Era of the Gusher," a period which began with the discovery of oil in the early twentieth century, encompassed the mid-century development and nationalization of the industry, and ended with a change of government in 1989 in response to widespread protests. The third section provides a detailed discussion of Hugo Chavez-his rise to power, his domestic political and economic policies, and his high-profile forays into international relations-as well as surveying the current landscape of Venezuela in the wake of Chavez's death in March 2013. Arranged in a question-and-answer format that allows readers to search topics of particular interest, the book covers questions such as, who is Simón Bolívar and why is he called the George Washington of Latin America? How did the discovery of oil change Venezuela's relationship to the U.S.? What forces where behind the coups of 1992? And how does Venezuela interact with China, Russia, and Iran? Informative, engaging, and written by a leading expert on the country, Venezuela: What Everyone Needs to Know® offers an authoritative guide to an increasingly important player on the world stage. What Everyone Needs to Know® is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.

The Nationalization of the Venezuelan Oil Industry from Technocratic Success to Political Failure

Author : Gustavo Coronel
Publisher : Free Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (318 download)

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Book Synopsis The Nationalization of the Venezuelan Oil Industry from Technocratic Success to Political Failure by : Gustavo Coronel

Download or read book The Nationalization of the Venezuelan Oil Industry from Technocratic Success to Political Failure written by Gustavo Coronel and published by Free Press. This book was released on 1983 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Oil and Governance

Author : David G. Victor
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139502883
Total Pages : 1035 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (395 download)

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Book Synopsis Oil and Governance by : David G. Victor

Download or read book Oil and Governance written by David G. Victor and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-12-08 with total page 1035 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National oil companies (NOCs) play an important role in the world economy. They produce most of the world's oil and bankroll governments across the globe. This book explains the variation in performance and strategy for NOCs and provides fresh insights into the future of the oil industry.

Venezuela, Oil and Politics

Author : Rómulo Betancourt
Publisher : Boston : Houghton Mifflin
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 456 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Venezuela, Oil and Politics by : Rómulo Betancourt

Download or read book Venezuela, Oil and Politics written by Rómulo Betancourt and published by Boston : Houghton Mifflin. This book was released on 1979 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Oil and Development in Venezuela During the 20th Century

Author : Jorge Salazar-Carrillo
Publisher : Praeger
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (318 download)

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Book Synopsis Oil and Development in Venezuela During the 20th Century by : Jorge Salazar-Carrillo

Download or read book Oil and Development in Venezuela During the 20th Century written by Jorge Salazar-Carrillo and published by Praeger. This book was released on 2004-05-30 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book advances the theory that a potential leading export sector—in this case, the oil sector—is capable of inducing economic growth even in peripheral countries where the product line is primary in nature. In Venezuela the oil sector has contributed directly and indirectly to the development of the country's overall economy, particularly from 1936 to 1973, when that sector met the criteria of a leading sector, i.e., one that expands rapidly and obtains a large specific size relative to the economy as a whole. Oil investment in Venezuela contributed to the fiscal sector, the foreign sector, GDP, income, backward and forward linkages, the multiplier and accelerator effects, and the retained value of total expenditures. In spite of recent efforts to diversify the production and export mix, the Venezuelan economy continues to remain heavily dependent on oil production for export. During the midcentury decades of solid growth, it became evident that government oversight was needed to ensure that the numerous contributions flowing from the oil sector would be put to good use. Overall, it appears that the contributions were well utilized by the Venezuelan government, although there was plenty of room for improvement. Income distribution problems and other social inequities continued to beset the development process, leaving the economy rigid and inflexible. Consequently, when the oil sector faltered (1974 to 2000), Venezuela was unable to shift into other product lines. Political disarray soon followed, and with it a pervasive aura of economic uncertainty that persists to this day.

Oil and World Politics

Author : John Foster
Publisher : James Lorimer & Company
ISBN 13 : 145941344X
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (594 download)

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Book Synopsis Oil and World Politics by : John Foster

Download or read book Oil and World Politics written by John Foster and published by James Lorimer & Company. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Petroleum is the most valuable commodity in the world and an enormous source of wealth for those who sell it, transport it and transform it for its many uses. As the engine of modern economies and industries, governments everywhere want to assure steady supplies. Without it, their economies would grind to a standstill. Since petroleum is not evenly distributed around the world, powerful countries want to be sure they have access to supplies and markets, whatever the cost to the environment or to human life. Coveting the petroleum of another country is against the rules of international law — yet if accomplished surreptitiously, under the cover of some laudable action, it's a bonanza. This is the basis of "the petroleum game," where countries jockey for control of the world's oil and natural gas. It's an ongoing game of rivalry among global and regional countries, each pursuing its own interests and using whatever tools, allies and organizations offer possible advantage. John Foster has spent his working life as an oil economist. He understands the underlying role played by oil and gas in international affairs. He identifies the hidden issues behind many of the conflicts in the world today. He explores military interventions (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria), tensions around international waterways (Persian Gulf, South China Sea), and use of sanctions or political interference related to petroleum trade (Iran, Russia, Venezuela). He illuminates the petroleum-related reasons for government actions usually camouflaged and rarely discussed publicly by Western politicians or media. Petroleum geopolitics are complex. When clashes and conflicts occur, they are multi-dimensional. This book ferrets out pieces of the multi-faceted puzzle in the dark world of petroleum and fits them together.

Comandante

Author : Rory Carroll
Publisher : Penguin Books
ISBN 13 : 0143124889
Total Pages : 326 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (431 download)

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Book Synopsis Comandante by : Rory Carroll

Download or read book Comandante written by Rory Carroll and published by Penguin Books. This book was released on 2014-02-25 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the leadership of Venezuela's elected president, Hugo Chávez, and his efforts to transform his country and paints a picture of his life based on interviews with ministers, aides, courtiers, and everyday citizens.

Things Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse

Author : William Neuman
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 1250266165
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis Things Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse by : William Neuman

Download or read book Things Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse written by William Neuman and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named Foreign Affairs Best Books of 2022 and the National Endowment for Democracy Notable Books of 2022 "Richly reported...a thorough and important history." -Tim Padgett, The New York Times A nuanced and deeply-reported account of the collapse of Venezuela, and what it could mean for the rest of the world. Today, Venezuela is a country of perpetual crisis—a country of rolling blackouts, nearly worthless currency, uncertain supply of water and food, and extreme poverty. In the same land where oil—the largest reserve in the world—sits so close to the surface that it bubbles from the ground, where gold and other mineral resources are abundant, and where the government spends billions of dollars on public works projects that go abandoned, the supermarket shelves are bare and the hospitals have no medicine. Twenty percent of the population has fled, creating the largest refugee exodus in the world, rivaling only war-torn Syria’s crisis. Venezuela’s collapse affects all of Latin America, as well as the United States and the international community. Republicans like to point to Venezuela as the perfect example of the emptiness of socialism, but it is a better model for something else: the destructive potential of charismatic populist leadership. The ascent of Hugo Chávez was a precursor to the emergence of strongmen that can now be seen all over the world, and the success of the corrupt economy he presided over only lasted while oil sold for more than $100 a barrel. Chávez’s regime and policies, which have been reinforced under Nicolás Maduro, squandered abundant resources and ultimately bankrupted the country. Things Are Never So Bad That They Can’t Get Worse is a fluid combination of journalism, memoir, and history that chronicles Venezuela’s tragic journey from petro-riches to poverty. Author William Neuman witnessed it all firsthand while living in Caracas and serving as the New York Times Andes Region Bureau Chief. His book paints a clear-eyed, riveting, and highly personal portrait of the crisis unfolding in real time, with all of its tropical surrealism, extremes of wealth and suffering, and gripping drama. It is also a heartfelt reflection of the country’s great beauty and vibrancy—and the energy, passion, and humor of its people, even under the most challenging circumstances.

Dragon in the Tropics

Author : Javier Corrales
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 0815705026
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (157 download)

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Book Synopsis Dragon in the Tropics by : Javier Corrales

Download or read book Dragon in the Tropics written by Javier Corrales and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since he was first elected in 1999, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Frías has reshaped a frail but nonetheless pluralistic democracy into a semi-authoritarian regime—an outcome achieved with spectacularly high oil income and widespread electoral support. This eye-opening book illuminates one of the most sweeping and unexpected political transformations in contemporary Latin America. Based on more than fifteen years' experience in researching and writing about Venezuela, Javier Corrales and Michael Penfold have crafted a comprehensive account of how the Chávez regime has revamped the nation, with a particular focus on its political transformation. Throughout, they take issue with conventional explanations. First, they argue persuasively that liberal democracy as an institution was not to blame for the rise of chavismo. Second, they assert that the nation's economic ailments were not caused by neoliberalism. Instead they blame other factors, including a dependence on oil, which caused macroeconomic volatility; political party fragmentation, which triggered infighting; government mismanagement of the banking crisis, which led to more centralization of power; and the Asian crisis of 1997, which devastated Venezuela's economy at the same time that Chávez ran for president. It is perhaps on the role of oil that the authors take greatest issue with prevailing opinion. They do not dispute that dependence on oil can generate political and economic distortions—the "resource curse" or "paradox of plenty" arguments—but they counter that oil alone fails to explain Chávez's rise. Instead they single out a weak framework of checks and balances that allowed the executive branch to extract oil rents and distribute them to the populace. The real culprit behind Chávez's success, they write, was the asymmetry of political power.