with Dr.  José Ignacio Hernandez

Abstract 

The rule of law in Venezuela has gradually eroded since the election of authoritarian populist leader Hugo Chávez in 1998. Following Chávez’s death in 2013, his Vice President, Nicolás Maduro, assumed power through a contentious election, marking the acceleration of an autocratization process. By 2017, through manipulative constitutional tactics, Venezuela found itself trapped in a state of non-freedom characterized by non-competitive authoritarianism.
This democratic backslide has had profound implications, particularly on the state capability, which has become increasingly fragile since Maduro’s ascent to power. Venezuela now grapples with weakened institutions, coopted by informal and criminal organizations, exacerbating an economic crisis marked by shortages and inflation. The crisis deteriorated into a  complex humanitarian emergency compounded by systematic human rights violations.
The primary challenge in Venezuela lies in restoring the rule of law and rebuilding institutional frameworks that define constitutional democracy. But for that purpose, it is not enough to adopt institutional reforms. Quite the contrary, the binding constraint that prevents the rule of law effectiveness is state fragility and the areas of limited statehood.
The presentation utilizes the Venezuelan meltdown as a case study to examine state fragility as an extreme condition, rendering conventional rule-of-law institutions inapplicable. Drawing on key concepts from state capability and areas of limited statehood theory, the discussion will highlight leading indicators that illustrate the multifaceted dimensions of the Venezuelan state collapse. Also, the presentation explains the limitation of the rule-of-law reforms based on a top-down approach, suggesting a bottom-up approach of Venezuela as an example of how to reinstate the rule of law in fragile states.