160 SCIENCE & SOCIETY  Science & Society, Vol. 69, No. 2, April 2005, 160–190 160 Revolutionary and Non-Revolutionary Paths of Radical Populism: Directions of the Chavista Movement in Venezuela STEVE ELLNER ABSTRACT: Radical populist movements in Latin America have tended to move in one of two directions, both of which manifest themselves in the policies, actions and discourse of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and his followers. Hard-line Chavistas envision a peaceful radicalization process as a result of the intensification and escalation of conflict. The hardliners view the creation of parallel structures in the labor movement, civil society and pub- lic administration as the seeds of a new society, at the same time that they call for the purging of old structures. Soft-line Chavistas consider the new parallel structures complementary to the old ones. They favor conducting political struggle along the lines of a “war of positions” in which old structures are penetrated and dominated rather than eliminated. Both strategies have been amply discussed by Chavistas at all levels of the movement, even though Chavista political organizations lack ideological clarity and ideologically oriented factions with their own publications. T HOSE SCHOLARS WHO REJECT the association of Latin American populism with demagoguery and opportunism posit its potential for catalyzing far-reaching change. This “pro- populist” writing consists of two schools: one views populism as cre- ating opportunities for revolutionary change and the other credits it with achieving non-revolutionary transformation. Both have had im- portant implications for the political strategies designed by Latin American leftists, both historically and in the present.