Socialism of the 21st century. The Ouroboros of the Venezuelan democratic political society

Abstract

Over the last twenty years, the Venezuelan political system that emerged under the Bolivarian revolution and 21st-century socialism has raised growing doubts about the government’s real capacity, displacing democratic legitimacy and subordinating the role of citizens to a secondary level within the power structure. This essay aimed to expose how the model implemented constitutes an “uroboros democracy,” in which the political system, through narrow determinations of the majority, endorses fundamental decisions made by a minority, establishing a circular and self-referential dynamic where power ends up legitimizing itself. The conclusions argue that the image of the ouroboros—the snake that devours itself—serves as a metaphor for a democracy that, defined by the logic of the absurd, is progressively eroded by the regime’s own actions. The author’s central thesis argues that if the speed with which democratic institutions are undermined exceeds the capacity for institutional regeneration, the system will eventually extinguish all effective mechanisms of democratic defense, leaving Venezuela without the resources to reverse the degeneration of its institutional foundations.