Abstract

MUJICA CHIRINOS, Norbis  and  RINCON GONZALEZ, Sorayda. Fifth Moment of the Fifth Republic: Socialism of the XXIst Century. Revista Venezolana de Gerencia [online]. 2008, vol.13, n.42, pp.244-272. ISSN 1315-9984.

The objective of this article is to specify what the current Venezuelan government understands by twenty-first century socialism and what development model underlies it. The analysis starts with a characterization of the social and economic policies that this paper’s authors made in 2006, when they determined four different phases through which the present Government has passed, and states that, beginning in 2005, a fifth phase began related to proposals about twenty-first century socialism. Marxist ideas about socialism are explained, emphasizing economic areas - property, market and production/productivity- and social areas, such as distributive justice.  Next, the proposals of Dieterich and Reyes are studied, authors who hold favorable positions regarding socialism, culminating with the examination of two official documents: General Lines in the Plan for Economic and Social Development of the Nation 2007-2013 and the National Plan Simón Bolívar, all of which are motors for maximum revolution on the road to socialism, and which gather the government’s vision on the matter. The methodology used was content and bibliographic-hemerographic analysis. Conclusions are that the government’s objective is to advance in the direction of a socialist stage of transition towards communism itself, by fortifying a centralized state, mixed economy with a greater presence of state and social property over private property, and a deepening of political polarization that brings new forms of exclusion and the establishment of a selective type of citizenry.

Keywords : Venezuela; socialism; Marxism; development model; economic policies; social policies.