This is Democracy: The Paradox That Empowers Dictators
The incentives that the world’s democracies create for dictators to cling to power are a painful reality, a geopoltical paradox. These circumstances are unlikely to change soon in the case of the dictatorship in Venezuela.
So argues Professor Kurt Weyland in this wide-ranging conversation with Jeremi and Zachary. The discussion surveys the path to power of autocratic leader Nicolas Maduro, the dim prospects for Maduro’s departure despite global consensus that his July election victory was a sham, and the weakness of sanctions as a policy tool.
“The international community says we don’t accept corruption. We don’t accept human rights violations anymore. And so the international community has threatened to indict Maduro and a whole bunch of his underlings for their human rights violations, for their corruption, for their involvement in drug trafficking – not only the U.S. but also the International Criminal Court,” Weyland explains in this episode of This is Democracy. “And so that whole mafia in power essentially feels compelled to stay in power because if they were to lose power, they go to jail.”
Weyland, the Mike Hogg Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin, writes widely on democratization and is the author of seven books on the subject. The latest is Democracy's Resilience to Populism's Threat: Countering Global Alarmism, published in April. It explores the ways democracy is resilient, and how the successful efforts to overturn democracies are the exception and not the rule.
In this sober discussion with Jeremi and Zachary, Weyland is somewhat bleak. He praises the courage of Venezuela's opposition leaders, but sees little chance that the current dictatorship will give way. The paradox of Venezuela illustrates a larger worldwide challenge, a dilemma without clear options for democracy’s advocates and defenders.
Please have a listen to this important conversation, or read the transcript.
This is Democracy – Episode 273: Venezuela Elections