Las amenazas militares a la democracia y la opinión del venezolano

The political stability of Venezuelan democracy used to be attributed in great part to the special relationship between the military and the civil sector. However, the unsuccessful military coups in 1992 and their political aftermath have raised fears about the future of democracy in Venezuela.In the framework of a major investigation towards the end of 1993, a national probabilistic sample of 1338 individuals was interviewed on the role of the armed forces in national life, on military coups in general, and on whether or not the 1992 uprisings were justified. In addition opinions were sought about the performance of the government in relation to the uprisings, and about the destitution of former president Carlos Andrés Pérez. Data processing was carried out through different techniques of factorial analysis.The results show that Venezuelan are interested in politics and also that public opinion is divided between those who reject and those who favor military intervention in politics through military coups. However, this division does not imply polarization. Data procesing through multiple correspondence analysis revealed tension between sociological legitimacy and illegitimacy about military intervention. Cluster analysis revealed six types of people grouped according to similarity of responses. These types range from radical anti-coup to principled pro-coup and their analysis indicate that mass political culture in Venezuela have both authoritarian-militaristic and democratic tendencies, though neither dominate. Key words: Political culture, democracy, authoritarianism, military uprisings.