Hitherto, discussions of Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian revolution have made only limited attempts to situate the current process in the broad sweep of Venezuelan political and social history. Ellner, a recognised authority in this field, has now remedied this deficiency.

Ellner points out that many scholars analyse Venezuelan politics on the basis of personalities, elite power-struggles and factional manoeuvres, in keeping with the ‘exceptionalism thesis’ which argued that the country was relatively immune to the deep-seated conflicts characteristic of other Latin American countries. As against this, Ellner's aim is to examine ‘issues of substance …. particularly political expressions of class and racial cleavages’ (p. 1) of which the current transformation is only the most recent and dramatic expression.

Traditional historiography presented a view of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries centred around factional struggles between rival caudillos, modified only by the rise of Acción Democrática (AD) and the 1945 and 1958 revolutions. For Ellner, these events are unintelligible without an analysis of popular, democratic and nationalist struggles going back to the independence period. This leads him to question both the AD idealisation of the 1945 revolution and the left's dismissal of it as a mere continuation of oligarchic rule in democratic form.

The ‘pacted democracy’ of the Punto Fijo regime which emerged from the 1958 revolution was idealised by proponents of the exceptionalism thesis such as Robert Alexander and Daniel Levine. Ellner, on the other hand, agrees with the left (and with Chávez) in condemning its politically exclusive, corrupt and often repressive character, although he also argues that it did allow room for some left-wing currents to operate, both inside and outside the two dominant parties. This, he maintains, helps to explain the emergence of chavismo, because many figures from these sectors would later participate in the Chávez coalition, and also ideologically the pro-state-intervention currents in AD and COPEI would make it easier for Chávez to return to a statist model later. However, given the paradigm shift in the political discourse wrought by chavismo, it may be questioned whether Ellner does not exaggerate the contribution of such limited and traditional social-democratic currents to the Bolivarian project.

Here it can be argued that Ellner underestimates the extent to which chavismo represents a radical break, which accounts for the violent opposition it has encountered from privileged sectors. It does indeed draw on long-established tendencies within the Venezuelan left, but principally those tendencies antagonistic to puntofijismo such as La Causa Radical (in its early stages) and the Partido Revolucionario Venezolano (Ruptura). Again, Ellner recognises that ‘powerful proestablishment groups’ resorted to a military coup in 2002 (as also against AD in 1948) not only because they disliked popular nationalist reforms and policies but above all because they feared 'the mobilization and concomitant sense of empowerment on the part of the popular classes' (p. 219). This is a valid and important point, but needs to be further developed. For this reviewer, the subversive character of chavismo lies both in popular mobilisation/empowerment and in an ideological commitment to a radical restructuring of the state, expressed in the concept of the Constituent Power derived from La Causa Radical and the Partido de la Revolución Venezolana.

The Chávez presidency has passed through several stages (Ellner identifies four), corresponding – at least up to 2005 – to increasing radicalisation culminating in the official adoption of ‘Twenty-First Century Socialism’ as the goal. With the unexpected constitutional referendum defeat in December 2007, this dynamic of radicalisation was interrupted, although by mid-2008 there were signs that it had resumed. Underlying this process is a tension analysed by Ellner in his Chapter 7, ‘The Chávez Movement's Top-Down and Grassroots Approaches’, which is crucial for understanding the real issues at stake.

From the initial focus on participatory democracy to the current quest for ‘Twenty-First Century Socialism’, the Bolivarian process has consistently stressed the importance of popular participation and the autonomy of social movements. But Chávez' personal leadership and the key role of the central government appear to point in another direction, and here Ellner very appropriately suggests the need for a synthesis of the two approaches. Despite the expectations of the ‘grassroots purists’, he points out, ‘the Venezuelan state has played a crucial role in giving form to the grassroots approach …. the state has been instrumental in enhancing the sense of empowerment of the rank and file of the Chavista movement’ (pp. 180–1). For all their emphasis on popular autonomy, most grassroots activists also support Chávez' promotion of national sovereignty and of Latin American unity through the ALBA project. If the Bolivarian vision is not to founder in vague utopianism, then the autonomists must surely compromise with some form of state structure. The logical solution, in Ellner's view, is internal democratisation of the new chavista party while maintaining a centralised leadership and discipline. The complexity and importance of this issue is such that it merits a volume to itself, but at least Ellner has made a valuable initial contribution to the discussion.

In this respect also, critics in both Venezuela and abroad (especially the USA) miss the point when they concentrate on Chávez' rhetoric and on his alleged aid to leftist groups in neighbouring countries: what is really intolerable for Washington about the Bolivarian revolution is its contagious example, the ‘demonstration effect’ inspiring similar (but independent) governments in Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Paraguay, and popular movements elsewhere.

Ellner's concluding chapter reiterates his insistence that Venezuela must be seen in the Latin American context; its specificity (notably its oil-producing status) does not warrant its categorisation as exceptional. Today, as in the past, it can only be understood on the basis of foreign dependency and social and ethnic tensions which are typical of the region. This book is a valuable addition to the growing literature on Chávez and Venezuela and should be regarded as essential reading for all serious students of the Bolivarian process.