[maonnjtip]

I think one person, when thinking about democratic institutions, is Fareed Zakaria. His theory is that you need to acquaint people with constitutional liberalism - a free a vibrant press, and active legal system, a system that permits challenges to absolute authority or misuse of police powers - as a first step before building a constitution. And then that constitution needs to describe enforcable measures to prevent the usurpation of powers within the context of a culture that will now allow it to happen.

Chavez did do 1 thing right - he broke the allocation of land to an inherited class that wasn't really helping the country. That's why he's popular. But then he went forward as a demagogue. The problem is there is no mechanims or culture within Venezuela to protect and defend people against dictatorial usurpation of power.

The king of Spain is revered in his country because he used the monarchy to instill respect for democratic government in the people after the demise of Franco. That's why Spain doesn't look like Venezuela. The Spanish king ha earned the right to be heard based on that history.