Public policies and social economy in Venezuela

Abstract

The principal challenge of Latin American societies and governments is to reduce poverty and social exclusion and construct more egalitarian societies. There is growing interest in social economy as a way to reach these objectives, after the failing of the developmentalist and neo-liberal policies. In recent years, some Latin American countries (such as Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela) have manifested a political will to offer public support to social and solidarity economics. Poverty is no longer responded to with public assistance policies, but with attempts to reinforce the economic and social position of the excluded, through the creation of associative enterprises. Meanwhile, a new conception of public action includes a non institutional dimension, linked to the collective action of citizens. This paper analyzes the case of Venezuela, a country that presents peculiarities because of the importance of its petroleum production. We present the principal measures taken by the Chavez government to support social economics, and discuss the principal challenges to the construction of a plural economy in which social economics would play an important role.