Venezuela - Hardcover

"This revised edition is useful because it encompasses a period of time when oil prices have plummeted, thus presenting the oil exploring country of Venezuela with a challenge to its well-established democracy. The authors of this edited volume--most of whom contributed to the 1977 original--emphasize the evolution of Venezuelan democracy, governmental structures and functions, and the growing strength of the two dominant political parties, Democratic Action and COPEI. Collectively, they show a confidence in the viability of Venezuela's democratic system, but ponder the effects of growing disenchantment because of dwindling oil wealth and the consequent decline of government programs that had been improving the standard of living of lower-income groups ... this volume leaves the reader mindful of the great degree to which politics in one of Latin America's few established democracies, Venezuela, has been conditioned by the economic importance of oil." -- Choice