Access to the Internet and Declining Democracy in Venezuela

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the effects of different social determinants on having Internet access in Venezuela amid recent economic and political turmoil affecting living conditions and satisfaction with democracy. It argues that the so-called digital divide, a term depicting connectivity gaps, uses a simplistic dichotomy measuring percentages of who has and who hasn’t accessed the Internet. The article goes beyond such a restrictive metric and grasps whether, and to what extent, having Internet at home is affected by more revealing sociodemographic predictors, including gender, age, place of residency, income, or education. To illustrate my point, the article draws on data from the 2017 AmericasBarometer public opinion survey conducted in Venezuela. It models logistic regression to explore the straightforward but often understudied characteristics that might carry voting-age adults to have Internet service. Given Venezuela’s democracy crisis, the article also questions whether having Internet at home affected respondents being satisfied with how democracy worked in the country.