Resumen

OCHOA HENRIQUEZ, Haydée; FUENMAYOR, Jennifer  y  HENRIQUEZ, Deyanira. From Territorial Decentralization to Participative Decentralization in Venezuela. Utopìa y Praxis Latinoamericana [online]. 2007, vol.12, n.36, pp.91-105. ISSN 1315-5216.

Along with the promotion of a market economy, the Venezuelan state promoted a process of political territorial de-centralization that has suffered changes with the approval of a new constitution.  The purpose of this paper is to study citizen participation in sub-national governmental levels in the de-centralization model. The results indicate that: 1)  decentralization was applied during the nineteen-nineties with little citizen participation and with parallel pressures from civic societal organizations looking to obtain participation, 2) a new constitutional framework at the end of the 1990s established the bases for citizen participation on sub-national levels, 3)  a law promoted by the government was approved for Local Planning Councils and a law for Community Councils, which gives power to the formulation of sub-national public policy in organized societies, in order to advance in the application of participation established in a new constitutional framework, 4) a process of formation for the application of new legal conditions promoted by sectors of the National Assembly, the National Government, and base organizations in society, 5) obstacles to i its application were presented by local governments, and other sectors antagonistic to the national government.  The conclusion was that during the early 1990s a territorial de-centralization of power occurred which negated citizen participation, while towards the end of the same decade a process of participatory decentralization of organized society occurred which encountered restrictions on the part of the promoters of the previous decentralization model.

Palabras clave : Decentralization; participation; sub-national governments; national government.