Venezuela
Type of government:
Venezuela
is a federal presidential republic. The chief executive is the President of
Venezuela who is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is
exercised by the President. Legislative power is vested in the National
Assembly.
How long has the population lived this way?
Venezuela
has been a republic since 1953.
What have been the effects on economy, culture and society?
The
three-digit inflation in which the country is immersed and of which we have not
had official data for more than six months, is however measured day by day in
the experience of each of the citizens. Going up prices for specific
"staple" products requires government authorization, which translates
to those products (things like rice, flour, milk, or toiletries) being
artificially low in price and not often listed on the shelves (in fact, their
rotation is so high that employees don't bother putting them on the shelves,
they just leave them on the pallets in the middle of the aisle, and disappear
within a few minutes). For all these products, there is a black market, people
who obtain an official price (either by making long queues at dawn to buy the
allowed quota, or through other less legal ways) and then resells them at a
significant price premium. They are called "bachaqueros".
Another
obvious consequence of controls on the free market is the omnipresence of
queues. By now, any Venezuelan is already used to the notion that the mayor
will spend part of his day waiting in line for anything: for any purchase,
procedure or diligence he needs to do.