This Issue

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.6.1.0005
• Pages: 5-8
• Published date: 01 April 2014
• Date: 01 April 2014
• Author: George Lambie

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EDITORIAL

THIS ISSUE

George Lambie

This edition of the journal addresses f‌ive themes of importance to contemporary

Cuba, which are shaped by, and/or shaping, the current economic reform

process. These themes are as follows: democracy and the Cuban electoral system,

corporate social responsibility (CSR) in new Cuban enterprises, demographic

changes leading to an ageing population and declining younger generation,

and the older generation and their attitudes to the current reforms and patterns

of migration to the United States from the perspective of the ‘educational

self-selection problem’. Together, these articles give interesting insights into

modern Cuba as it faces change and the challenge of managing the revolution

through these unprecedented times.

Arnold August, ‘Democracy Still in Motion: The 2013 Election Results

in Cuba’

Arnold August has been the most assiduous analyst of the Cuban electoral

process for a decade and a half. His f‌irst book entitled Democracy in Cuba and

the 1997-98 Elections (1999 – Editorial José Marti) was the f‌irst serious foreign

study of this aspect of the Cuban political system. Drawing from his words at the

beginning of this article, he challenged the ‘disinformation and misinformation’

of the advocates of ‘regime change’ based on ‘clichés and ignorance’ and replaced

it with ‘facts, f‌igures and a balanced analysis’ of the Cuban electoral process.

This article continues in the same vein and seeks to develop trends identif‌ied in a

more recent book by the author entitled Cuba and its Neighbours: Democracy in

Motion (2013 – Zed Books), particularly the electoral processes surrounding the

February 2013 elections to the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP).

A contested issue in the Cuban electoral system is the slate vote (voto unido), in

which a list of candidates is drawn up by a candidacy commission and voters

are encouraged to select the whole slate, that has prompted one Cuban analyst

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