Venezuelan regional elections, democratic backsliding, and autocratization in the 2010s

ABSTRACT While explanations of democratic backsliding in Venezuela have focused on a host of national-level processes, few scholars have considered subnational drivers of democratic decay. This paper explains how Venezuelan leaders used electoral manipulation in regional elections, targeted punishment of subnational authorities, and creation of parallel subnational political-administrative bodies to undermine democracy and aid in the consolidation of authoritarianism in the 2010s. During the presidency of Hugo Chávez, the government sought to win elections under relatively free conditions but pursued highly partisan attacks on opposition governors and mayors, limiting their autonomy and authority, while centralizing power. Then, as the Nicolás Maduro government faced threats to its hegemony at the ballot box, electoral manipulation gave way to outright fraud. The study highlights novel forms of subnational control and shows how regional elections and center-subnational relations helped push Venezuela from an electoral democracy in 2010 to an electoral authoritarian regime by decade’s end.