The Cuban Political System: Current Status and Possible Reforms for an Integral and Democratic Participative Transformation

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.10.2.0175
• Published date: 01 December 2018
• Date: 01 December 2018
• Pages: 175-208
• Author: Emilio Antonio Duharte Díaz
• Subject Matter: update of the political model,integrality of the reforms,political consensus,popular participation,Political Constitution,popular consultation,Translated by Stephen Wilkinson,Al Campbell

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ACADEMIC ARTICLE

THE CUBAN POLITICAL SYSTEM: CURRENT

STATUS AND POSSIBLE REFORMS

FOR AN INTEGRAL AND DEMOCRATIC

PARTICIPATIVE TRANSFORMATION

Emilio Antonio Duharte Díaz1

University of Havana, Cuba

Abstract

The present article tries to offer a contribution to the integral analysis of the

possible reforms in Cuba that surpass the economic sphere, strengthen the widest

democratic participation and the national political consensus. This is done through

a critical examination of the most recent and main debates and political events in

Cuba until the middle of 2018 and the prospects of change. It is argued that the

updating of the Cuban model of socialist development must continue to deepen

the economic development but must be accompanied more intensely by important

reforms of political, cultural, social and ideological development, which guarantee

the integrality of the processes of revolutionary transformation of Cuban society.

The article makes a broad proposal of possible political reforms in the country,

beginning with the already initiated popular consultation for the elaboration of a

new socialist Constitution. The conclusion establishes as a key premise of political

development the necessity of a popular participation that is increasingly broad,

active, direct, systematic, creative, real and effective in making the most important

decisions in the country.

Keywords: update of the political model, integrality of the reforms, political

consensus, popular participation, Political Constitution, popular consultation

176 ACADEMIC ARTICLE – EMILIO ANTONIO DUHARTE DÍAZ

InternatIonal Journal of Cuban StudIeS 10.2 WInter 2018

Introduction

The project of socialist transformation in Cuba is still in a transitional stage. Its

main characteristics are dictated by an underdeveloped economy, a still persis-

tent internal economic crisis – although in a process of slow recovery – and the

hostility of the US government. With the government of Barack Obama, some

expectation of changes was initiated. The announced agreement of 17 December

2014 to restore diplomatic relations and the subsequent steps of rapproche-

ment between the two countries not only began a qualitatively new stage in

those ties and gave some hope of opportunities, but also signalled great chal-

lenges for Cuban socialism. The restoration of diplomatic relations did not

mean the normalisation of relations in general. Two major obstacles remain to

be negotiated in future talks: the lifting of the economic, commercial and finan-

cial blockade against Cuba – known euphemistically in the US as an embargo,

while many specialists consider it rather a true economic war against the Cuban

nation – and the return of the territory illegally occupied by the US naval base

in Guantánamo, which, moreover, was converted into a prison for terrorists or

suspected terrorists. There are two other unresolved problems that are very

sensitive for Cuban society: the need to suspend the illegal radio and television

broadcasts of the US against Cuba and eliminate programmes aimed at destabi-

lising and subverting the Cuban constitutional order, to which the US govern-

ments continue to allocate millions of dollars. We have to see, then, the

substantial modification of the traditionally interventionist, hegemonic and

often aggressive policy of the US government, and the development of those

relations based on respect for the independence, sovereignty and self-

determination of the Island. The Donald Trump government was charged with

confirming what some academics and other colleagues had pointed out since

2014: the need to avoid triumphalism, political naiveté and the belief that it is

a policy of the State. It has seemed clear to some since 2014 that in examining

the restoration of relations with the US, a fundamental issue is to move from

political naiveté to measured analysis, which means overcoming the moments

of euphoria and superficial inquiry, and undertaking the necessary political

analysis with a realistic approach, methodological rigour and scientific

objectivity. The new president of the US not only put a stop to the initiated

process, but also suspended some of the decisions that President Obama had

taken to improve relations with Cuba.

To the external difficulties of the process of political transition – view this

as a set of tendencies of necessary changes within the socialist system2 – are

added the unfulfilled objectives and the errors of different stages of the

THE CUBAN POLITICAL SYSTEM 177

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Revolution in Cuba,3 beyond the colossal social work, cultural and political

aspects of the Cuban project.

In the continuity of the process of socialist construction, the system has to

permanently strengthen its legitimacy and rebuild consensus through the constant

improvement of the economic, political, social, cultural and socialist ideological

system, for which new transformations must take place.

The economic and political reforms4 that were implemented in Cuba in the

1990s contributed to this and covered the entire system as a whole. It would

be worth highlighting here only two of them: (1) the economic, which made it

possible to alleviate the crisis and guarantee the survival of the Revolution,

despite the US blockade and internal errors in economic policy, and (2) the

structural and functional changes to give more authority to the assemblies of

the Popular Power (municipal mayorships, provincial governments and

national parliament). Of these political changes, the most important was the

establishment of a free, direct and secret vote of the entire population to elect

the delegates to the provincial assemblies and the deputies to the National

Assembly of People’s Power (parliament). From among the latter the President,

Vice President and Secretary of the National Assembly are elected, as well as

the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba, including its own President

(Constitución de la República de Cuba 2010: articles 69–75); hence the

importance of that political reform.

The end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first cen-

tury were marked by the application of reforms with their ups and downs.

Especially, the years 2006–08 were marked politically by the succession of the

power of former President Fidel Castro to a group of leaders of the Communist

Party of Cuba (PCC) and the Cuban State led by Raúl Castro, a process that

has been characterised by changes in the style and methods of conducting the

government and, in general, in the way of doing politics. The VII Legislature

of the National Assembly – constituted in February 2008 as a result of the

general elections – elected the new Council of State5 and ratified Raúl himself

as its President.

The political discourse of the government since that date has been shaped as

a search for a new consensus in the country. This had its expression in President

Raúl Castro’s speeches between 2007 and 2010,6 which delimited, and undertook

the realisation of, the priorities of his government. In practice, at the internal

level, modifications were made in the government structure and functioning of

the govenment, and in the promotion of new people to the highest levels of the

government, processes that continue today. At the external level, Cuba’s recog-

nition is growing: it already has relations with all Latin American countries, has