Negotiating normative premises in democracy promotion: Venezuela and the Inter-American Democratic Charter

Abstract

This article analyses negotiations on democracy promotion by looking at the case of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. It argues that Venezuela contested the concept of representative democracy during the Charter negotiations, advancing the notion of "participatory and protagonist democracy" and that, even if it was unsuccessful in its demands, the country contributed to deepening the debate on the concept of democracy, on which there is far from worldwide consensus. The article suggests that the main drivers of the negotiation process and the final agreement were domestic political changes in Venezuela, specific features of the negotiations, and the structural position of Venezuela in the field of democracy promotion in the global and regional contexts, which were, at the time, favourable to a compromising attitude to conclusion of the Charter, even if not to the concept of democracy.

Regional organizations and democratic conditionality: Family resemblances and shaming

“…Changing US administrations impact both on OAS priorities and on its room for maneuver. Palestini's article uses the qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) method to search out causal factors accounting for recent OAS sanction decisions (a method designed to cope with few cases and multiple causes), and complements this with process tracing in two contrasting cases-Haiti in 2014 and Venezuela in 2017 (see also Ribeiro-Hoffmann, 2019).…”

Regional sanctions and the struggle for democracy: Introduction to the special issue

“…Despite this encompassing definition, ROs in the Americas have limited the imposition of sanctions to protect incumbents in relatively weak states (Palestini, 2020). During the adoption of the Inter-American Democratic Charter in 2001, the notion of representative democracy was contested by Venezuela, which at the time advocated an alternative conception of participatory democracy (Ribeiro Hoffmann, 2019). As far as South American ROs are concerned, the written norm has been defined in broader and less precise ways than in the OAS.…”

Regional organizations and the politics of sanctions against undemocratic behaviour in the Americas

“…This was partially modified by the adoption of the Inter-American Democratic Charter (IADC) in September 2001 by the OAS General Assembly. 3 By introducing the notion of ‘unconstitutional alterations of the constitutional regime’, the IADC (Art.19 and 20) widened the scope of enforcement to cases in which the elected government is not the victim but the perpetrator of breaches of democratic institutions (Arrighi, 2015; Heine and Weiffen, 2014; Perina, 2015; Ribeiro-Hoffmann, 2019). In this regard, the IADC pushed the boundaries of what constitutes a threat to democracy in the Americas – at least on paper.…”