Venezuela vista desde lejos. Some reflections on self-management and co-management

Abstract

In rejection of the “neoliberal” market practice, self-managed cooperatives and co-managed enterprises have been projected as two key vehicles for transcending capitalist relations of production in the current Venezuelan government’s goal towards “socialism of the twenty-first century”. This paper reflects on some of the English-speaking Left’s perspectives on the tensions between the Chávez government’s projections of socialist transformation through cooperatives and co-management, and the problems associated with their application in practice. In particular, it focuses on the problems of posing “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches as mutually exclusive.