Venezuela’s democratic future will be shaped not only by political transitions, but by how the country manages its most defining structural feature: vast natural resource wealth. Oil has historically been both a source of opportunity and a driver of institutional fragility, contributing to cycles of centralization, rent-seeking, and democratic erosion. As Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo — former oil minister of Venezuela and one of the architects of OPEC — famously warned, petroleum could become “the devil’s excrement,” bringing with it corruption, waste, and institutional decay.

As Venezuela looks ahead to a potential — yet elusive — democratic opening, a central question emerges: can the country escape the historical trap of resource dependence and build a model in which oil supports — not undermines — shared prosperity and democracy?

This session brings together leading thinkers on political economy, development, and global energy to explore how Venezuela can transform its resource wealth into a foundation for democratic stability, economic diversification, and shared prosperity.

SPEAKERS

• Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University
  • Development Strategy
     
• Terry Lynn Karl, Gildred Professor of Latin American Studies, Professor of Political Science, William and Gretchen Kimball University Fellow & Senior Research Scholar (by courtesy) of FSI/CDDRL, Stanford
  • Political Constraint – Institutional Design
     

MODERATOR

 Héctor Fuentes, Visiting Scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University