Hugo Chávez's Anti-Poverty Legacy: A Complicated Case

Abstract

This paper aims to assess the positive and negative legacies of Chávez's anti-poverty policies and their future in a nation on the brink of resource exhaustion and political deterioration. It will first provide a review of basic indicators of development and then a brief historical review of the political situation in Venezuela and Chávez's rise to power. An overview of four main areas of social programming will be followed by an analysis of four “failures” of the Venezuelan system, leading to a discussion of Venezuela's growth over time and in comparison to other nations. The paper concludes with an analysis of the legacies of Chávez and implications for the future of poverty alleviation in Venezuela. [From the introductory section]