| In the intangible and complex Latin American politics, Venezuela seems to be very mystery in the recent years. It is all because on this land arises a great politician Hugo Chavez. His firm anti-American posture, the Bolivár Plan he launched to take care of the lower class and the economic reform he called"21st Century Socialism"are so different from Venezuela's traditional foreign policy and internal politics. After successively conquering a series of military coup, strike and referendum that target Chavez, this hard-line political leader is consistently moving on his various social reforms and is warm welcomed by the Venezuelan people. All what is happening to Venezuela today deserves some new thinking about the past. What makes the situation today? What creates Chavez the warm-welcomed political leader with left-wing image? This paper is just trying to give an answer to the questions above. Through analyzing the democratic politics from 1958 to 1998, it is concluded that there are three big flaws in the traditional Venezuelan democratic politics before Chavez won the presidency, which just make the story of Chavez possible or necessary. Concentrating on this point, the whole analysis in this paper will be conducted in three parts or chapters.The first part is devoted to have a preliminary review on the process of Venezuela's democratic politics from 1958 to 1998, which is divided into three phases, namely adjusting democratic politics, stable democratic politics and shaking democratic politics. From 1958 to 1973, Venezuela's democratic politics is in the adjusting phase. In 1958, after overthrowing the dictatorship, the leading Venezuelan political parties AD, COPEI, URD and other small parties signed a pact named"Pacto de Punto Fijo"that is designed to adjust the different parties'interests and create a political game rule. Then under the direction of this pact, a capitalist democratic political system is established and a new constitution is made under the leading of the first elected government. Later because of the efforts of two successive presidents, the Venezuelan Communist Party and the Left-wing Revolutionary Movement together give up their armed fighting against the government and join the democratic system as legal parties. In this way, the democratic politics finishes its adjusting period. The democratic politics between 1973 and 1983 is in a relatively stable phase. The nationalization of oil companies in Pérez government well meets the calling of economic nationalism in the country and is wide supported by both the national capitalists and the people. Meanwhile, as the oil price rises, the government revenue is increasing, which could enable the government to adopt some economic policies that are good for both the average people and the capitalists. With the oil's driving, the Venezuelan economy is getting prosperous, and people's living standard is also improved. All these make the government legitimacy assured and bring the democratic politics to a stable period. But this kind of stability is surrounded by serious flaws that have been displayed in a clue at the very beginning of 1980's. On Feb.18, 1983, Venezuela experiences an unforgettable"Black Friday"when the oil and currency exchange rate declines sharply in a sudden, capital flights and the whole economy starts trembling. This event marks the shaking of democratic politics has begun. In this phase, the economy is in a serious declining, people's living standard is deteriorated. The economic problem is even not resolved until 1998. Finally, all these negative things together with several failed reforms and serious government corruptions make the Venezuelan people lose their faith in the government and even the whole democratic political system.In the second part, after the narration of the process of the Venezuelan democratic politics, an analysis on the flaws of the democratic politics is made, which are the emotional intraparty conflict, people-neglected elite politics and big dependence on oil. First of all, in more than 30 years'process of democratic politics, the emotional intraparty conflict is everywhere inside two core parties AD and COPEI. This kind of intraparty conflicts often breaks out on the nomination of the party presidential candidate. No matter AD or COPEI has lost the presidency to its rival for several times just because of this kind of emotional intraparty conflicts that caused serious splitting in the party. It is just this kind of emotional intraparty conflicts that badly weakened the core parties'power and make the parties have no abundant energy to think over how to perform the democratic politic better in a real sense. Secondly, although Venezuela's democratic political system has been established in 1958, the elite politics can be seen everywhere. Whether a law is introduced or a government policy is carried out is to great extent the outcome of the political elites'will. This kind of elite politics makes the government policies divorced from the people and eventually results in the failed adjustment of the class conflicts. Finally, Venezuela's democratic politics is based on the oil income. Along with the rise and fall of oil price, when the oil income increases, the government can adopt some positive economic policies to adjust the interests of different social classes, but when the oil income decreases, the government fails to do anything. Just as the Chinese old saying,"success is due to it, failure also due to it", the instability of oil economy not only creates the stability of democracy but also generates the shaking of democracy. The great dependence on oil makes Venezuela eat the bitter fruit planted by itself.In response to the previous chapter, the third part gives a story about the consequences the flaws of democratic politics bring about. The emotional intraparty conflicts cost so much energy of each core party that the party leaders cannot have a good thinking over their political policies; the elite politics leads to so much personal elite shadow in the making of the government policies that the people is totally divorced from policy-making process; the dependence on oil is so serious that the national economy is always in a big instability. It is just because of these flaws that the people's living standard is deteriorated, the disparity between the rich and the poor is getting bigger, the whole society is in a big disharmony. The serious social conflicts combined with several failed reforms and serious government corruptions finally lead to the loss of people's confidence in the traditional two party dominated politics. The people in the corner need a positive change, hoping a new leader having nothing to with the traditional parties can put forward some effective, bold and resolute reforms. Under this circumstance, Chavez assumes the presidency.After Chavez in the presidency, he sets his face against the failed Neo-liberal economic reforms the two previous ex-presidents implement. He names his reform as"21st Century Socialism". A series of reforms of Chavez make the people get a lot of benefits, which have created a new government. However, the flaws of Venezuela's democratic politics are hardly to be removed in a very short time. It is difficult to foretell whether the reforms in Venezuela can go on well constantly and whether this country can gradually overcome the flaws in the traditional democratic politics. It is not appropriate to make a judgment here, it can be only judged by the history.
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