How Red is the Pink Tide in Hugo Chávez's Venezuela?

The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.President Hugo Chávez has made it his goal to create "21st Century Socialism" in Venezuela. Critics and sympathizers alike wonder just what the president means by this phrase. Chávez has resisted any sweeping definition but made clear that socialism in Venezuela would be founded upon participatory democracy, solidardistic relations of production, and mixed, innovative forms of property. This presentation explores the limits and possibilities for construction of such a system by examining the advantages and disadvantages posed by dependence on oil exports and by Venezuelan political culture. Hellinger will draw upon his ongoing research on popular attitudes about democracy, debates within the chavista community on the Internet, and on the political economy of Venezuela as a petrostate.Ohio State University. Mershon Center for International Security StudiesOhio State University. Center for Latin American StudiesEvent webpage, streaming video, event photo

From Passive to Radical Revolution in Venezuela’s Populist Project

In December 2001, Hugo Chávez and others changed Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolutionary project, which consisted of replacing a corrupt and elitist constitution with a fair and popular one, into a radical one. In its early stages the project corresponded to what Gramsci called a “passive revolution.” Attempts by opposition forces to crush the construction of a new populist hegemony (a coup in April 2002 and an indefinite strike in December 2002) were met with popular mobilization that reaffirmed Chávez’s hegemonic project. The radical revolution consisted of social programs designed to alleviate the suffering of the poor and consolidated a new hegemonic structure among Venezuela’s lower classes. The concept of “radical revolution” provides a theoretical alternative for assessing the extent to which a political project can be described as populist

The Critical Juncture Concept’s Evolving Capacity to Explain Policy Change

This article examines the evolution of our understanding of the critical junctures concept. The concept finds its origins in historical intuitionalism, being employed in the context of path dependence to account for sudden and jarring institutional or policy changes. We argue that the concept and the literature surrounding it—now incorporating ideas, discourse, and agency—have gradually become more comprehensive and nuanced as historical institutionalism was followed by ideational historical institutionalism and constructivist and discursive institutionalism. The prime position of contingency has been supplanted by the role of ideas and agency in explaining critical junctures and other instances of less than transformative change. Consequently, the concept is now capable of providing more comprehensive explanations for policy change

Quasi‐trapped ion and electron populations at Mercury

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94682/1/grl28663.pd

Abacavir, efavirenz, didanosine, with or without hydroxyurea, in HIV-infected adults failing initial nucleoside/protease inhibitor-containing regimens

BACKGROUND: Hydroxyurea (HU) is an immunomodulatory agent that has been documented to enhance the antiretroviral activity of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, such as abacavir (ABC) and didanosine (ddI), and would be expected to improve virologic efficacy. METHODS: A 48-week, phase IV, multicenter, open-label, proof-of-concept clinical trial was conducted to evaluate second-line, protease inhibitor (PI)-sparing therapy with ABC/efavirenz (EFV)/ddI plus HU or without HU in HIV-infected subjects failing to achieve HIV-1 RNA ≤ 400 copies/mL after ≥ 16 weeks of treatment with lamivudine/zidovudine or lamivudine/stavudine, plus 1 or 2 PIs. Subjects were assigned to ABC (300 mg twice daily)/ EFV (600 mg once daily)/ ddI (400 mg once daily) plus HU (500 mg twice daily) (n = 30) or this regimen without HU (n = 24). RESULTS: Baseline mean HIV-1 RNA was 3.86 log(10 )copies/mL and CD4+ cell count was 345 cells/mm(3). A similar percentage of subjects in the non-HU arm (58%) and HU arm (53%) completed the study. Intent-to-treat: missing = failure analysis showed no differences in proportions of subjects in the non-HU and HU arms achieving undetectable plasma HIV-1 RNA levels at week 24 (<400 copies/mL: 58% [14/24] vs 57% [17/30], P = 0.899; <50 copies/mL (50% [12/24] vs 47% [14/30], P = 0.780). Median change from baseline in CD4+ cell count in the non-HU and HU arms at week 48 was +114 cells/mm(3 )and -63 cells/mm(3 )(P = 0.007), respectively. Both regimens were generally well tolerated, although more subjects in the HU arm withdrew prematurely from the study due to adverse events (23% vs 4%). Four cases of possible ABC-related hypersensitivity were observed. CONCLUSION: ABC/EFV/ddI was an effective and well-tolerated second-line regimen for nucleoside/PI-experienced HIV-infected subjects. The addition of HU blunted the CD4+ cell response, did not appear to enhance antiviral activity, and resulted in more treatment-limiting adverse events

¿Cómo entiende el ¿Pueblo¿ la democracia protagónica?. Resultados de una encuesta

Este artículo se basa en los resultados de una investigación realizada en el verano del 2006 en barrios y urbanizaciones de Caracas conocidos por sus niveles relativamente altos de organización popular. Encontró que los venezolanos valorizan las normas asociadas tanto con la democracia representativa como con la participativa. Residentes de los barrios valorizan la inclusión social más que aquellos de las urbanizaciones, mientras que los residents de clase media ponían mayor énfasis en la libertad de los medios de comunicación, tal como se había anticipado. Sin embargo, las diferencias eran menos marcadas de lo que se había anticipado. Ambos grupos mostraron un alto grado de tolerancia de la participación activa en reuniones públicas frente a aquellos expresando opiniones contrarias a las propias Estos resultados, tal vez sorprendentes, tomando en cuenta la polarización política tan radical de los últimos tiempos, parecen positivos para el funcionamiento de la democracia

Venezuela: Tarnished Democracy (Nations of Contemporary Latin America) 1st Edition

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