Venezuela's approval for President Maduro and Chavismo hit new low
鈥�听David Smilde is the moderator of WOLA's blog:听.听The views expressed are the author's own.
President Nicolas Maduro鈥檚听ow for him and for Chavismo. Datanalisis鈥檚 November poll puts the number at 24.5 percent, meaning he has dropped 5.7 percent [approval] since September and 26 percent since narrowly defeating Henrique Capriles in April 2013. Fully 85.7 percent of respondents think the country is on the wrong track.
Perhaps most worrying for President Maduro is that his numbers have slid so far听听such as devaluing the currency or raising gas prices.
Looking at previous Datanalisis polls using the same methodology, Hugo Ch谩vez was in the low 30s from mid-2002 to mid-2003, reaching a low of 30.8 percent approval in June 2003.听
In 2009 a survey of Venezuelan political culture by the Centro Gumilla found that 31 percent of their respondents espoused the basic beliefs of 21st Century Socialism. I had assumed that that made 30 percent Chavismo鈥檚 bedrock. But Maduro鈥檚 popularity has descended below that.
I will be looking out for data on Chavismo and the Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela more broadly to see if their popularity levels are descending as fast as Maduro鈥檚. This would indicate whether the disenchantment is aimed at Chavismo as a model of governance, Maduro as Ch谩vez鈥檚 successor, or both.
