Democratic Action ( es, Acción Democrática, AD) is a

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

n social democratic and

centre-left Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

established in 1941. The party played an important role in the early years of Venezuelan democracy, leading the government during Venezuela's first democratic period (1945–1948). A decade of dictatorship under

Marcos Pérez Jiménez Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez (25 April 1914 – 20 September 2001) was a Venezuelan military and general officer of the Army of Venezuela and the dictator of Venezuela from 1950 to 1958, ruling as member of the military junta from 19 ...

followed, which saw AD excluded from power. With the advent of democracy in 1958, four Presidents of Venezuela came from Acción Democrática from the 1950s to the 1990s during the two-party period with COPEI. In the 2015

legislative elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

held on 6 December, AD backed the opposition electoral alliance

Democratic Unity Roundtable The Democratic Unity Roundtable ( es, Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, MUD) was a catch-all electoral coalition of Venezuelan political parties formed in January 2008 to unify the opposition to President Hugo Chávez's United Socialist Party of ...

(MUD) which managed to grasp a

supermajority A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority ru ...

. AD won 26 constituency representatives out of 167 seats in the unicameral

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

, making it the second-largest party in opposition to

Nicolás Maduro Nicolás Maduro Moros (; born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician and president of Venezuela since 2013, with his presidency under dispute since 2019. Beginning his working life as a bus driver, Maduro rose to become a trade unio ...

. In July 2018, AD left the

opposition coalition. The current General Secretary Of Democratic Action is

Henry Ramos Allup Henry Lisandro Ramos Allup (born 17 October 1943) is a Venezuelan politician and lawyer and former President of the National Assembly who was born in Valencia, Carabobo, Valencia, Carabobo. He has been leader of the social democracy, social democr ...

History

Early years: 1931—1958

The party had a chaotic early history. The ''Agrupación Revolucionaria de Izquierda'' (ARDI) was founded in 1931 in Colombia by

Rómulo Betancourt Rómulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello (22 February 1908 – 28 September 1981; ), known as "The Father of Venezuelan Democracy", was the president of Venezuela, serving from 1945 to 1948 and again from 1959 to 1964, as well as leader of Acción De ...

and other exile Venezuelans. In 1936 this became the ''Movimiento de Organización Venezolana'' (ORVE), which was then dissolved into the ''Partido Democrático Nacional'' (PDN). Finally, in 1941, after Isaías Medina Angarita legalized all political parties in Venezuela, Acción Democrática was founded by Betancourt and others. These included

Rómulo Gallegos Rómulo Ángel del Monte Carmelo Gallegos Freire (2 August 1884 – 5 April 1969) was a Venezuelan novelist and politician. For a period of nine months during 1948, he governed as the first freely elected president in Venezuela's history. He was ...

, Andrés Eloy Blanco, Luis Beltrán Prieto,

Juan Oropeza Juan Oropeza Riera (24 April 1906 – 29 November 1971) was a Venezuelan lawyer, diplomat, writer, educator and political scientist. He was born in Carora in the state of Lara, and was the younger brother of pediatrics pioneer, Pastor Oropeza Ri ...

, Luis Lander, Raúl Ramos Jiménez, Medardo Medina Febres, Enrique H. Marín, Rafael Padrón, Fernando Peñalver, Luis Augusto Dubuc, César Hernández, José V. Hernández and Ricardo Montilla. Gallegos was a highly prestigious writer, author of the iconic novel, '' Doña Bárbara'' (1929), while Eloy Blanco was a celebrated Venezuelan poet and witty

humorist A humorist (American) or humourist (British spelling) is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking, but is not an artist who seeks only to elicit laughs. Humorists are distinct from comedians, who are show business e ...

. After the October 1945 revolution, Betancourt was

President of Venezuela The president of Venezuela ( es, Presidente de Venezuela), officially known as the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, Presidente de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is the head of state and head of government in Ven ...

until

won the 1947 election (generally believed to be the first free and fair elections in Venezuelan history). Gallegos governed until being overthrown in the 1948 Venezuelan coup d'état. The 1945–48 period is known as the '' trienio''. Many of AD's founders and early members went into exile during the subsequent dictatorship of

, and returned for the restoration of democracy in 1958.

Political dominance: 1958—1999

After the restoration of democracy, AD joined the 1958

Puntofijo Pact The Puntofijo Pact (or Punto Fijo Pact) was a formal arrangement arrived at between representatives of Venezuela's three main political parties in 1958, Acción Democrática (AD), COPEI (Social Christian Party), and Unión Republicana Democr� ...

, initiating a forty-year period of two-party dominance by AD and COPEI. Betancourt won the 1958 election, and

Raúl Leoni Raúl Leoni Otero (26 April 1905 – 5 July 1972) was the president of Venezuela from 1964 until 1969. He was a member of the Generation of 1928 and a charter member of the Acción Democrática party, and the first Labor minister of Venezuela (d ...

won the following 1963 elections. AD also won in 1973 ( Carlos Andrés Pérez), 1983 (

Jaime Lusinchi Jaime Ramón Lusinchi (27 May 1924 – 21 May 2014) was a Venezuelan politician who was the president of Venezuela from 1984 to 1989. His term was characterized by an economic crisis, growth of the external debt, populist policies, currency dep ...

), and 1988 (Carlos Andrés Pérez again). From 1958 to 1999, AD's candidates only lost four out of nine presidential elections (two to COPEI, in 1968 and 1978, two to third-party candidates in 1993 and 1998), and one of those occurred during a major split in AD.

Splits

The 1968 presidential election was shaped by the internal split of Democratic Action, with a substantial leftist faction breaking away to form the Movimiento Electoral del Pueblo (MEP). The split was the result of

Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa (14 March 1902 – 22 April 1993), was a Venezuelan politician. A founder of Democratic Action and Minister of Education in its first government (1947–1948), he was a leader of Democratic Action after the restoratio ...

's victory in the 1967 AD

primary election Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

, only to see his nomination overturned by the party's

reformist Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement. Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can ...

social democrat Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soc ...

faction (led by Betancourt) in favor of Gonzalo Barrios, with the Betancourt faction considering Prieto too far left.David L. Swanson, Paolo Mancini (1996), ''Politics, media, and modern democracy: an international study of innovations in electoral campaigning and their consequences'', Greenwood Publishing Group. p244 Prieto Figueroa, at the time President of the

Venezuelan Senate The Senate of Venezuela was the upper house of Venezuela's legislature under its 1961 constitution. Under the 1999 constitution, the bicameral system was replaced by the unicameral National Assembly of Venezuela. However, since 1999 the former cham ...

as well as President of AD, split from AD over the affair along with a substantial number of his supporters. The result was that the 1968 election marked AD's first-ever electoral loss, when COPEI's

Rafael Caldera Rafael Antonio Caldera Rodríguez ( (); 24 January 1916 – 24 December 2009), twice elected the president of Venezuela, served for two five-year terms (1969–1974 and 1994–1999), becoming the longest serving democratically elected leade ...

won the Presidency with less than 30% of the vote, just ahead of AD's Barrios. Prieto Figueroa attained nearly 20%, attaining fourth place behind the

Unión Republicana Democrática The Democratic Republican Union ( es, Unión Republicana Democrática, URD) is a Venezuelan political party founded in 1945. History When the party appeared on course to win the 1952 election for a constituent assembly, then-dictator Marcos ...

's Miguel Ángel Burelli Rivas. An earlier split, in 1960, saw the Revolutionary Left Movement break away from AD. Its subsequent engagement in armed struggle against the government meant the split posed less of a partisan problem compared the later MEP split.

Chávez/Maduro era: 1999—present

The Puntofijo Pact and AD- COPEI duopoly over Venezuelan politics collapsed in the early 1990s in the face of a severe economic and political crisis, culminating in the impeachment of AD member and

Carlos Andrés Pérez for corruption and the 1993 election of former COPEI leader

on a

National Convergence The National Convergence ( es, Convergencia Nacional) is a political party in Venezuela. It was founded in 1993 by former President of Venezuela Rafael Caldera, who was a member of Copei and won a second term in the 1993 elections. From 19 ...

coalition platform. Caldera's failure to resolve the economic crisis created the political environment for the 1998 election of

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...

In the 2000 elections for the new

National Assembly of Venezuela The National Assembly ( es, Asamblea Nacional) is the legislature for Venezuela that was first elected in 2000. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who were elected by a "universal, direct, personal, and secret" vo ...

, AD won 29 out of 165 seats; four additional seats were won by an AD-COPEI alliance. At the 2005 legislative elections Democratic Action staged an electoral

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...

and consequently did not win any seats. During the 2010 and 2015 elections, AD was part of the

. In the

2015 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in the year 2015. Africa * 2015 Beninese parliamentary election 26 April 2015 * 2015 Burkinabé general election 29 November 2015 * 2015 Burundian legislative election 29 June 2015 * 2015 Burun ...

where the Roundtable won the National Assembly in a 109-seat majority, AD won 25 seats. The Roundtable parties boycotted the 2017 elections to the

Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

and participated in an unofficial referendum against its formation. In July 2018, AD left the Democratic Unity Roundtable, citing "operative problems inside the organization" and difficulties in electing the new secretary general of the coalition. The

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

confederation CTV is closely linked to AD. AD is a member of the

Socialist International The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism. It consists mostly of socialist and labour-oriented political parties and organisations. ...

, and a member of

COPPPAL The Permanent Conference of Political Parties of Latin America and the Caribbean (french: Conférence permanente des partis politiques d'Amérique latine et des Caraïbes; es, Conferencia Permanente de Partidos Políticos de América Latina y el ...

Partidos Miembros
, accessed 10 June 2012 Acción Democrática's current

Secretary General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

is Henry Ramos Allup.

Venezuelan Presidents from AD

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1941 establishments in Venezuela Centre-left parties in South America Full member parties of the Socialist International Left-wing nationalist parties Political parties established in 1941 Political parties in Venezuela Social democratic parties in Venezuela