Laureano Vallenilla Lanz

Laureano Vallenilla Lanz
Born (1870-11-10)November 10, 1870
Barcelona, Anzoátegui State, Venezuela
Died November 16, 1936(1936-11-16) (aged 66)
Paris, France
Nationality Venezuelan
Signature

Laureano Vallenilla Lanz (November 10, 1870 – November 16, 1936) was a Venezuelan intellectual and sociologist who occupied the presidency of the congress for 20 years during the Gomez regime.[1][2]

Political career

Vallenilla Lanz held a number of positions under the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez and was well known as an apologist for his regime. In his best-known work, Cesarismo Democrático (1919; English title: Democratic Caesarism), he justified the caudillo system by stating that due to the character of the Venezuelan people, rule by a dictator was necessary to maintain public order. In his view, this system was democratic in the sense that it was due to the "unconscious suggestion of the majority".[3][4]

Ideology

Vallenilla was "largely responsible for developing a body of historical and sociological theory dealing with issues of race, power relations, and social development". He viewed "the popular masses as a backward and unruly social group" and argued that political leadership needed to be "exercised through the mediation of a popular strongman who would channel the energies of the masses during the transition to a democratic order".[5]

Democratic Caesarism

Specifically, Vallenilla argued that race had no biological basis and ought to be understood as socially constructed, particularly through political projects of nation-making. Vallenilla assailed the notion that racial purity provides moral or political legitimacy.

See also

References

  1. ↑ von Vacano, Diego A. (2012). The Color of Citizenship: Race, Modernity and Latin American / Hispanic Political Thought. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 83–111. ISBN 9780199746668.
  2. ↑ (Spanish) "Vallenilla Lanz, Laureano", biography, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas. Accessed November 20, 2007.
  3. ↑ pp. 15–17, Rómulo Betancourt and the Transformation of Venezuela, Robert Jackson Alexander, Transaction Publishers, 1982, ISBN 0-87855-450-5.
  4. ↑ Leo B. Lott, "Executive Power in Venezuela", American Political Science Review 50, #2 (June 1956), pp. 422–441.
  5. ↑ Aponte, Pedro Rafael (2008). The Invention of the National in Venezuelan Art Music, 1920–1960 (PDF). University of Pittsburgh. pp. 33–36. ISBN 9781109053203.


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