<DIV>Venezuela&rsquo;s Hugo Chávez was the first anti-neoliberal presidential candidate to win in the region.&nbsp; <i>Electing Chávez</i> examines the circumstances that facilitated this pivotal election.&nbsp; By 1998, Venezuela had been rocked by two major scandals&mdash;the exchange rate incidents of the 1980s and the banking crisis of 1994&mdash;and had suffered rising social inequality.&nbsp; These events created a deep-seated distrust of establishment politicians. Chávez&rsquo;s 1998 victory, however, was far from inevitable. Other presidential candidates also stood against corruption and promised a clean break from politics as usual. Moreover, business opposition to Chávez&rsquo;s anti-neoliberal candidacy should have convinced voters that his victory would provoke a downward economic spiral.&nbsp; <br> <br> In <i>Electing Chávez</i>, Leslie C. Gates examines how Chávez won over voters and even obtained the secret allegiance of a group of business &ldquo;elite outliers,&rdquo; with a reinterpretation of the relationship between business and the state during Venezuela&rsquo;s era of two-party dominance (1959-1998). Through extensive research on corruption and the backgrounds of political leaders. <br> Gates tracks the rise of business-related corruption scandals and documents how business became identified with Venezuela&rsquo;s political establishment. These trends undermined the public&rsquo;s trust in business and converted business opposition into an asset for Chávez.&nbsp; This long history of business-tied politicians and the scandals they often provoked also framed the decisions of elite outliers.&nbsp; As Gates reveals, elite outliers supported Chávez despite his anti-neoliberal stance because they feared that the success of Chávez&rsquo;s main rival would deny them access to Venezuela&rsquo;s powerful oil state. <DIV> <DIV> <DIV></div> </div> </div> </DIV>