The essay describes a sequence of events or correlation, but doesn't even try to establish causality. Maybe it's just a difficult problem, and Chavez tried different things when they hit walls?
I liked the quote - it’s not a perfect essay. There’s no laboratory for testing these things. Real life outcomes are overdetermined. But, if you take enough before then after diffs, you can establish a kind of cultural epidemiology imo.
The essay describes a sequence of events or correlation, but doesn't even try to establish causality. Maybe it's just a difficult problem, and Chavez tried different things when they hit walls?