1. PAL - Thesis Statements

Q1 Thesis — "to what extent does Venezuela preserve the appearance?"

Venezuela preserves a highly convincing democratic appearance across all key principles but undermines their operation so systematically it is best classified as competitive authoritarian rather than any form of genuine democracy. convincing appearance ✓ / operation undermined systematically ✓ / = competitive authoritarian ✗ genuine democracy

Q2 Thesis — "how and why are these principles weakened?"

In Venezuela each liberal democratic principle is deliberately weakened through specific traceable mechanisms — not systemic failure but rational strategy to concentrate power and eliminate every threat to regime survival. deliberately weakened ✓ / specific traceable mechanisms ✓ / not failure — rational strategy to concentrate power + eliminate threats

a

a

Q3 Thesis — "evaluate extent of hollowing and why retaining label helps survival"

Venezuela has comprehensively hollowed out every democratic principle retaining only the institutional shell because the democratic label itself is the regime's most valuable survival asset conferring a legitimacy no openly authoritarian state can claim. comprehensively hollowed ✓ / only shell remains ✓ / label = most valuable survival asset — legitimacy no autocrat can claim