A Popular Participation Model to avoid a new governance crisis in Venezuela and Peru: a study of the oil and mining industries

Abstract: Shared governance through popular participation and social oversight represents a significant challenge and opportunity in combating corruption and enhancing public policy effectiveness. This study, which involved a survey of 101 refugees in Brazil and employed Structural Equation Modeling, proposes a theoretical model titled Popular Participation and Cultural Change to Reduce Corruption (PMRC). Given Venezuela's status as the largest oil producer in the world, the research focused on the following central question: What is the impact of Venezuelans' social participation in public policies related to gasoline supply? Despite receiving financial aid from China and Russia to support both the public and private sectors, the Venezuelan government charges $1.36 per liter of gasoline—the highest price in Latin America—despite a production cost of only $0.035 per liter. The study's key conclusion is that the governments of Venezuela and Peru are exploiting societal ignorance by closing educational institutions and restricting access to comprehensive knowledge, limiting citizens to only basic information. The research model suggests that promoting knowledge-sharing within society and with other nations holds transformative potential for national cultural change, ultimately contributing to the reduction of corruption. The study emphasizes that combating corruption requires shifting from a purely legalistic approach to fostering an ethical cultural transformation, beginning with exemplary governance practices.