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In contrast, authoritarian and faux democratic regimes:
-- control the mass media, access to it, and one-sidedly support free-market dominance to the exclusion of alternative systems;
-- let monied interests control the process through unrestricted spending for favored candidates to the detriment of others, especially independent ones that are entirely shut out;
-- exert state repression and vote-rigging to deny opposition candidates an equal chance;
-- accept foreign financing for regime favorites, and
-- allow other hard line tactics and embedded systems to make democratic governance impossible.
The mass media play a crucial role. Their power influences public opinion, supports favored candidates, and it's no different in Venezuela than elsewhere. Yet Hugo Chavez and his party won impressive victories in every presidential, congressional and municipal election since 1998 by promising and delivering social changes - real ones for essential needs that lifted millions of out of poverty by using the nation's resources to help them.
In recent years, other Latin American electoral systems have also been democratized as neoliberal practices receded, popular mass movements arose, and "oligarchic uprisings" for authoritarian rule were defeated. Venezuela represents the most impressive example.
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