Obstacles to the Consolidation of the Venezuelan Neighbourhood Movement: National and Local Cleavages
The tenuous organisational structure of the Venezuelan neighbourhood
 movement explains its failure to live up to the lofty expectations which
 social movements created in Latin America in the 1980s. To understand why structural
 looseness prevails, it is necessary to examine social cleavages as well
 as the disparity between the theoretical model which underpins much discourse
 and legislation, on the one hand, and the daily practice of neighbourhood associations,
 on the other. An additional area of enquiry is the division in the national
 leadership between an apolitical current and one that views electoral politics
 as a natural avenue for the movement to pursue. Scholars, even those who have
 recently emphasized the importance of links between social movements and
 political structures, overlook the importance of organisational unity at
 the national level.