Crude chaos : the Venezuelan oil collapse : a comparative analysis of Chavismo’s oil policies

Abstract

The collapse in production of oil in Venezuela is exacerbating the country‟s profound humanitarian crisis, which has caused unprecedented mass-emigration due to today‟s highest hyperinflation and a wide lack of access to food, medicines and other services. The aim of this thesis is to carry out a comparative analysis of the oil policies of presidents Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro. Through the analysis of three parameters that were defining of the former‟s policy, it will attempt to identify the reasons for the decline in production. The thesis will argue that the policies implemented by Chávez‟s government laid the foundations for the ongoing collapse in production. Maduro has largely followed his predecessor‟s oil policies, but the results have drastically changed. While the changing international context and some of Maduro‟s policy decisions have intensified already dwindling production patterns, I demonstrate with the aid of a wide set of literatures in political science and international relations, and drawing on the institutional dimensions of the resource curse, that the dismantling of institutions in Chávez‟s government laid the foundations for the unproductive and predatory traits PDVSA possesses today.