Are the social, economic and political changes progressive or destructive?
This was selected as Best Answer That depends entirely on how you define ‘progressive’ and ‘destructive’. If you’re a foreign investor, Venezuela’s been on the wrong rail since Hugo Chavez showed up. If you’re a poor Venezuelan living in the shantytowns of Caracas, the expansion of social services have done wonders for your future opportunities. Political uncertainty and insecure property rights makes investors (justifiably) hostile to Chavez’s policies. However, income inequality, over-concentration of capital resources and investment can also be causes of economic under-performance (in LatAm, property rights are the privilege of the rich, see ‘Hernado de Soto’ & link #1). Because Chavez is investing in The People and providing them capital to develop small enterprise, it is possible that the resulting economic growth and rising incomes will overcome the damage done by declining international investment. Whether this growth overcomes the damage in Real terms is politically irrelevant,
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