Participatory democracy in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the “undue external influence”

In recent years the focus of comparative legal scholarship has been increasingly attracted to Latin America as a living laboratory for the development and implementation of innovative constitutional systems. The recent Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is an experimental and fascinating constitutional text, striking a fundamental balance between energy, ecology, economy and glocal, counterhegemonic, control of democratic processes. The clear contradiction between these elements and the political crisis in Venezuela undermines the pursuit of the social and environmental objectives dictated in the constitutional text. The extraterritorial financial powers and rules leaves local political authorities without instruments and not sufficient means to face the constitutionals problems, influencing the horizontal control of the powers of the “liberal tripartition”, above all following strong social reforms or nationalization policies. This is answered, by necessity or will of power, with abusive constitutionalism and leaderism that risks impoverishing the strong constituent participatory processes.