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The Discreet Charm of University Autonomy: Conflicting Legacies in the V enezuelan Student Movements
Author(s) -
IVANCHEVA MARIYA P.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
bulletin of latin american research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.24
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1470-9856
pISSN - 0261-3050
DOI - 10.1111/blar.12472
Subject(s) - autonomy , democracy , government (linguistics) , order (exchange) , political science , public administration , inequality , political economy , sociology , law , economics , politics , mathematical analysis , philosophy , linguistics , mathematics , finance
The recent history of V enezuela's student movements illustrates the paradox of academic autonomy. The student left used autonomy to resist repression during V enezuela's liberal democracy (1958). Yet, after 1998, the former supporters of the parties which had violated that autonomy started to capitalise on it in order to block the progressive reforms. The B olivarian government's decision not to interfere with autonomous universities, but to create a parallel B olivarian university system instead replicated one of the reform patterns of previous governments. Despite the government's intention to fight inequality, the reform contributed to further stratification of higher education and polarisation among the student movements.