The Comisión para la Reforma del Estado (COPRE – ''Commission for the Reform of the State'') was a Presidential Commission created in 1984 by President

Jaime Lusinchi Jaime Ramón Lusinchi (27 May 1924 – 21 May 2014) 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 depreciation, inflation and corrupt ...

to examine the reform of the

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

n state and political system. The 35-member commission included 18 independents, as well 9 members from Democratic Action and 5 from COPEI.Penfold-Becerra (1999),
Institutional electoral incentives and decentralization outcomes: state reform in Venezuela
, November 1999. p13

History

From 1984 to 1987 its President was

Ramón José Velásquez Ramón José Velásquez Mujica (28 November 1916 – 24 June 2014) was a Venezuelan politician, historian, journalist, and lawyer. He served as the president of Venezuela between 1993 and 1994. Background and personal life Velásquez was born ...

; upon his resignation he was replaced by Arnoldo José Gabaldón. CIDOB
Ramón José Velásquez Mújica
/ref> In May 1986 COPRE published "Proposals for Immediate Political Reform". These proposals included direct popular election of Venezuelan state governors and mayors, replacing the previous system of voters choosing a single party slate for all. The proposals also included "increased democratization of internal party procedures, and regulation of public and private financing of political parties". These reforms were considered too radical, with the governing Democratic Action publicly rejecting them; the reforms were defeated without even being discussed in Congress. Only during the campaign for the 1988 Venezuelan general election did the political space for the reforms appear. COPEI's presidential candidate, Eduardo Fernández, promoted the idea of reform, forcing Democratic Action candidate

Carlos Andrés Pérez Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez (27 October 1922 – 25 December 2010) also known as CAP and often referred to as ''Venezuelan Spanish#Some examples of Spanish words common in Venezuela.2C including some native Venezuelanisms .28slang.29, El ...

to address the issue. This led to an agreement between the two parties, and in June 1988 direct election of mayors, a law on fiscal and administrative decentralization to local governments, and a change in the electoral system from

closed list Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively vote for only political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some in ...

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

(used since 1958) to a mixed system was agreed. Implementation of the new electoral system was postponed until the following elections (in the event, the 1993 Venezuelan general election used a different system agreed in the interim). Only with the loss of Democratic Action's absolute majority in Congress in the 1988 Congressional elections, and the popular unrest demonstrated in the early 1989

Caracazo The ''Caracazo'' is the name given to the wave of protests, riots, and looting. that started on 27 February 1989 in the Venezuelan city of Guarenas, spreading to Caracas and surrounding towns following austerity measures from President Carlos A ...

, was the direct election of state governors approved.Penfold-Becerra (1999:14)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Comision para la Reforma del Estado Government of Venezuela Organizations established in 1984 1984 establishments in Venezuela Elections in Venezuela Jaime Lusinchi