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1. Fidel is in fact now elected, Cuban democracy is well established. It does not function quite the same way as say, US 2 party representative democracy in that it involves people far more in giving their direct opinion of issues rather than simply agreeing to follow a leader no matter what he does. In short many people woud say that Cuban style democracy is far superior to the US style.
Interesting, comrade. Could you provide some links please because my machine, or prehaps Google skills, are unable to draw up any results that are not Western Propaganda and anti-Casto, anti-Cuba. They would be much appreciated.
<span style=\'color:red\'>"I'm going to brutalize you so forcibly, Buddha will explode!!"</span>
"But they guy specifically asked for other peoples reasons. So you agree with me then. "
No, to an extent. I think that due to his limited english he was unable to express what he meant. I belive that he is here to learn as about Cuba, using this site as a source.
"He came here looking for people to give him his argument. A sign of complete ignorance and laziness"
I don't think he is lazy, though a little ignorant on this topic he was just wanting some answers.
--IHP
Knead the clay to make the pot,
but it's the nothing inside
that gives you the use of the vessel.
-Tao Te Ching Online: http://www.chinapage.com/gnl.html
One world at a time.
-Henry David Thoreau
I dedicate this signature to People Magazine and Cuervo tequila.
http://www.uvm.edu/~wmiller/cubandemocracy.htm
http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/raza/1997.10...0/msg00011.html
http://members.attcanada.ca/~dchris/CubaFAQ018.html
Think of the mechanism by which Castro is elected as president as more akin to the electoral college votes in the states. In theory if even 51% of Cubans everywhere wanted Fidel as president (most polls actually put the figure at 90%) then he should recieve 100% of the presidential vote since the delegates (who are elected directly) are supposed to follow the wishes of the majority of their constituency.
Because Cuba is very much more homogenous as regards the political interests of people their it is not especially surpising that there are no concentrated pockets of anti Castroians.
Castro himself also has to be elected directly though in the first place within a constituency, because only national assembly members can be elected president.
It is very common for those of us brought up in liberal democracies to see our version of democracy as the only valid mechanism and to assess different methods wrongly as a result. The essence of democracy is of course to ensure that the will of people is followed.
AS rousseau famously remarked about representative democracy 'they are free for only one day every 4 years'.
These days I'd say even that is only partly true since while most of us can choose which candidate to vote for, we have almost no say in deciding who will become a candidate in the first place. In other words we usually end up choosing merely between the lesser of two evils.
To answer the frequent charge that Castro has no opponent for the post of president, you only have to look at the mechanism and history to see why this would be. Who would want to oppose him knowing that it was definitely not a popular position and that one had no chance of actually winning ? In point of fact I would imagine that any national assembly member who did stand against Castro would be recalled by his constituents almost immediately and removed (they can do that in Cuba, if your elected representative does not follow your wishes he can be removed, you dont have to wait 5 years).
(Edited by sc4r at 8:08 am on May 30, 2003)
When I die I want to go to heaven, whether there is one or not.
I understand that god judges intentions and it is my intention to convert 5 secs before I die. Hopefully this insurance policy is valid in all states.
