VENEZUELA: DESLEGITIMACIÓN Y COLAPSO DEL SISTEMA DE PARTIDOS.

Party systems can be analyzed from a variety of perspectives. Various studies have identified the process of declining of the political parties and party systems, especially in Venezuela. From the most relevant points of view this paper analyses some explanations of the legitimacy crisis of Venezuelan party systems trying to find answers to how, when and why this process took place. It emphasizes on the scope of political parties capacity of represent social demands and its declining, from the perspective of the electoral patterns and its outcomes because these patterns are assumed to represent wider social and structural changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]