Resumen

MATHEUS INCIARTE, María Milagros  y  MORALES VILLALOBOS, Eduviges. Cooperatives as an Expression of the Subsidiarity Principle in Venezuelan Federalism. Gaceta Laboral [online]. 2010, vol.16, n.1, pp.5-26. ISSN 1315-8597.

The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (CRBV) defines the Venezuelan State as decentralized and federal and its government, in addition to the latter condition, is characterized as participative. Furthermore, it consecrates the transference of services to the States and Municipalities, communities, organized civil societies and in general, to those called by the constitutional document “new subjects of decentralization.” Subsidiarity is a recent basic organizational principle in the legal-political ambit, of a federal nature, connected to the distribution of participative and decentralizing competences. This study intends to analyze cooperatives as a consequence of the subsidiarity principle in the decentralized, federal Venezuelan State. These organizations propose an interesting initiative in the search for balance and equity; nevertheless, in practice, a series of obstacles to their functioning has been identified, among others, the handling of resources that in the majority of cases come from the State, thereby indicating the importance of establishing an adequate control system over them. The method used is normative analytic; information collection depends on doctrinal, legal and jurisprudential levels. Conclusions are that in implementing policies related to cooperatives, the exact sense of the subsidiarity principle is distorted, that there is only scant knowledge and internalization of the values that sustain cooperativism among the members and that the manner in which control over their management is exercised makes compliance with the supervising action of the State diffuse, circumstances that are worsened by a lack of coherence between the economic model proposed in the national Constitution and the pattern being developed in practice and by the heavy media attention and political intervention that falls on cooperative management from the State.

Palabras clave : Cooperatives; subsidiarity; federalism; Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.