Venezuela is officially a federal presidential republic called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, but in practice many experts describe it as an authoritarian or hybrid regime rather than a fully democratic system.

Official system

  • Venezuela’s constitution defines the country as a federal presidential republic with a directly elected president who is both head of state and head of government.
  • Power is formally divided into five branches: executive, legislative, judicial, “citizen” (ombudsman, prosecutor, comptroller), and electoral, a structure created by the 1999 constitution.

How it works in practice

  • Under Nicolás Maduro, domestic and international observers have documented severe weakening of checks and balances, concentration of power in the executive, and heavy influence over courts and the electoral authority.
  • Many political scientists and rights groups therefore classify Venezuela today as an authoritarian or competitive-authoritarian regime rather than a functioning liberal democracy.

Current political context

  • Elections still occur, but reports describe unfair conditions, including disqualification of opposition figures, media control, and repression of dissent.
  • Human rights organizations highlight patterns of arbitrary detention, intimidation, and shrinking civic space, which shape how the Venezuelan government operates beyond its formal constitutional design.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.