The governments of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, amongst the most corrupt and inefficient in the world, have one big success: the extraordinary good will they've been able to garner for the so-called "revolution." Very few authors (Will Dobson, Michael Penfold, Javier Corrales) have studied Chavez as a new form of authoritarianism. Public opinion in general, for the 14 years of the Chavez regime, viewed him as a modern-day Robin Hood: younger than Fidel Castro, less handsome than Che, but with a lot more money to give away at his discretion. (more…)