This policy was unified by a goal: the social integration of the people as a sign of its organization into a collective political subject. Several transformations were essential to ensure popular participation. The vast majority of the population joined the militancy organized into entities with an active political life, ownership and control of political practice and speech, collective and direct involvement in projects and socialization in values stemming from this experience.
The population got actively involved not only in labor entities but also in mass movements with precise political objectives such as national defense, protection against disasters and economic output Arenas, , p.
The Cuban institutional system succeeded in achieving increased citizen participation, mechanisms of public consultation, the politicization of citizens in the requirement to participate in decision making, the promotion of values of solidarity and cooperation, social mobility, very high levels of equality and social integration, and the understanding of political activity as a public service.
The democratic ideal had to be developed amidst great tensions arising from development itself, in combination with external aggression - in the form of embargo, military invasion and systematic promotion of the destabilization of the system.
Three problem areas stem from that, which have conditioned the course of this ideal: the "revolutionary unity" strategy, bureaucracy, and the production of a State ideology. The consequences of these problems are complex: a limited understanding of democracy as a State monopoly in policy formulation and little institutional recognition of the autonomous representation of social interests.
In the regulation of differences existing within the revolutionary spectrum, the concept of "revolutionary unity" had a central role. This meaning, which was historically produced to justify the differences existing between the political formations that led to the triumph of January , referred to two problems: the divisions that caused several crises during previous insurgencies , , and the need to confront enemy aggression as a compact national body, without cracks that could serve as support for the "fifth column".
In it was essential to achieve unity between the main revolutionary forces, namely the 26 July Revolutionary Movement, the 13 March Revolutionary Directorate and the Popular Socialist Party. However, these movements had heated discussions about the level of participation of each of them in the triumph of the Revolution.
The political strategy used was to confirm their revolutionary credentials. To date, unity is still proclaimed as a revolutionary necessity. However, for decades that concept has not referred to the same content of Back then, the platform of the unity came from organizations that relied on the ability to represent their existence through a political structure whose strength was characterized by adhesion to their own cause and means of communication.
After , with the "micro-fraction process", the explicit existence of different positions was no longer recognized - strategies geared towards power were designed - within the revolutionary sphere. Certainly, the concept of "revolutionary unity" was the basis of the survivability of the process started in However, there is little reflection on the problems that lie hidden in its shadow: there is also reference to the open confrontation between revolutionary positions or to the continuous criticism of current policies, in order to avoid the direct promotion of citizen discrepancy in public media.
This use of the concept of "unity as unanimity" helps to limit the democratic possibilities of autonomous citizenry participation in representing their specific interests, since ensuring unity leads us back to the absolute superiority of state politics over the various forms of policies exercisable by society. Just like, in the light of historical experience, it is preferable to stress the value of "proletarian democracy" over that of "proletarian dictatorship", today it is preferable to emphasize the value of "revolutionary diversity" over that of "revolutionary unity".
This diversity, built on the foundation of justice in political participation can provide, perhaps exclusively, the benefits that "unity" produced back in The problem can be summarized as one of "unity in diversity", as opposed to "unity as unanimity. Among the corollaries of the practice of "unity as unanimity" are varying degrees of bureaucratization of institutional practices and the consequent deterioration of the quality of citizen participation, which has been explained in terms of the country by the terms "bureaucratism" or "bureaucracy", which are still synonymous.
However, bureaucratism means an excess of employees and procedures, and streamlining it could lead to an efficient technical administrative bureaucracy. Bureaucracy - politics - in turn, corresponds to the lack of popular control over decision-making.
The Cuban triumph offered an opportunity to analyze the topic at the same level as other achievements in Marxist reflection. In , Che Guevara , p. The petty bourgeois [ Because [ Thus, the Cuban Revolution appeared as the update of the following thesis: of the two dangers threatening the revolutions - the imperialist counterrevolution and bureaucratization - "the bureaucratic threat [is] the worst, because it appears in a more insidious manner and under the mask of the revolution [and] it threatens to cripple the revolution from within" Mandel, n.
The heyday of Cuban socialist bureaucracy was consolidated in relation to the absence of a socio-juridical and ideological-cultural platform on the limits of state power, in a context in which the revolutionary state grew in proportions, influence and level of decision about social life. The citizenry therefore could not afford the legal abstraction that should characterize it.
Most political rights would not be granted according to the legal status of the citizen, but based on the political status of the revolutionary. That is, the right of revolutionaries to state power was ensured, but the rights of citizens - as a category more general that that of the revolutionaries - were not regulated to the same extent, neither in relation to power, nor in relation to the rights of power or to the control of power.
In the first "humanitarian intervention" in its history, US imperialism intervened in Cuba in order to thwart the ambitions of the sickly Spanish empire. Its goal was to bring Cuba and its rich resources under its own control using the excuse of Spanish depravity. In order to safeguard its economic interests, a "two-party" system proved useful.
Enlisting the support of the Cuban upper class, two electoral parties were imposed on the Cuban people based on "reform" and "stability. The mafia, as depicted in the great movie "Godfather Part 2," was another important financial base for the two parties. This system persisted from to when Fidel Castro decided that the essence of democracy was not being respected.
He struggled to empower ordinary workers and farmers, who would provide the new social base of the revolution. After nearly sixty years of a "multi-party" system, the Cuban people were not anxious to set up a carbon copy of what they had just overthrown. They voted with their bodies and their guns. Within the parameters of the socialist revolution, there were important measures to institutionalize democracy including elections.
The electoral laws were primarily responsible for giving shape to the voting procedures that August writes about. In particular, August examined the operations of municipal elections in the period from June to February, For the Cubans the term municipality has a somewhat definition than we use in the US, where New York City is considered a municipality.
Havana, Cuba's largest city, is not a municipality. Instead, it is considered a province and contains 15 municipalities within its borders. August's book is a study of the elections in one such municipality in Havana, and in particular, one of the wards contained therein. This ward, number 12, is about 8 square blocks and is home to 1, citizens. They are entitled to one municipal delegate.
Candidates were nominated in a public gathering, usually consisting of people. Any citizen has the right to nominate any other. Personal integrity and the respect of the community are decisive factors in selecting a candidate. Once candidates are selected, photos and biographies are posted in public areas.
Candidates need no money to run, nor for that matter is it allowed. The draft of the new constitution was debated and discussed by 8,, people between August 15 and November 15 this year. The final draft will be put to a referendum on February 24 Amongst the changes proposed is the elimination the 16 Provincial Assemblies and the devolution of power to the Municipal Assemblies.
Rather than this being a loss of democracy, it is a gain to the communities who will have more powers and more autonomy to decide on local matters.
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