The Cuban system of people’s democracy gives the people voice without introducing systemic division. It is the key to Cuba’s political stability and resistance. Neither the defenders nor the attackers of Cuba understand the Cuban political system. Cuba herself deemphasizes explanation of her political system, opting instead for diplomatic relations with progressive international NGOs. But the Cuban system of people’s democracy is the key to understanding Cuba and its significance for a world in crisis.
Reasonably priced. Available as an Ebook and paperback through Amazon. Ideal supplementary text for college courses in political science.
McKelvey, Charles. People’s Democracy in Cuba: A vanguard political-economic system. Columbia, South Carolina: Vanguard Press, 2024.
Paperback book via Amazon. $14.99
Kindle Ebook via Amazon. $5.00
People’s Democracy in Cuba: A vanguard political-economic system debunks the myth of Cuban dictatorship and demonstrates, through detailed reporting on the Cuban public discourse and political process, that the narrative of Cuban authoritarianism is false. The book takes the reader on a journey of discovery where people’s democracy, different from and in important respects more advanced than representative democracy, is constructed every day.
People’s Democracy in Cuba describes the structures of the Cuban political system of people’s democracy, constructed as an alternative to representative democracy. With direct elections by the people of delegates to municipal assemblies, and with elections by the delegates of the deputies of the National Assembly of People’s Power, which is the highest political and legal authority of the nation, the system establishes the sovereignty of the people. Such structures are the source of enduring political stability and legitimacy in Cuba, in spite of economic difficulties.
Mass organizations of workers (industrial, agricultural, and professional), women, students, small independent farmers, agricultural cooperativists, and neighborhoods also are central to the political process. They play constitutionally defined roles in elections and in legislative committees.
The Communist Party of Cuba, as a vanguard political party, leads the nation, but it does not have the constitutional authority to decide. It educates, guides, recommends, and exhorts. It has much influence in practice, insofar as it speaks with moral authority. It works with the government in the implementation of policies.
People’s Democracy in Cuba includes a chapter on Cuba’s pragmatic approach to its socialist economy. The state plays an active role as steward of a mixed economy with public and private property. It gives priority to the needs of the people with respect to health care, education, nutrition, and culture.
Testimonials
“Charles McKelvey’s work reflects years of enormous interdisciplinary investigation as well as constant perseverance in sharing with Cuba’s sons and daughters their eternal joys and perennial difficulties. With a notable personal stamp, the author formulates his own epistemological method with respect to the relation between the horizons of the global North and global South. Analyzing the world-system from the perspective of Wallerstein, he offers his own reflections on how to construct a socialist system in the North. McKelvey is without doubt a citizen of the world, born in the cradle of the North but adopted son of the South, and possessing a notable concern over the reality of underdevelopment and the advances and problems of the Cuban revolutionary project. In spite of the originality of his conclusions, his work offers interpretations with respect to Cuba, Latin America, and the Third World that coincide with the Cuban thought that has emerged during decades of constant struggle against imperialism and international capital. McKelvey’s work treats transcendent themes: the constant quest of Cuba and the underdeveloped countries for social justice in the context of the historic development of structures of domination and the present incapacity of the world elite to confront in a rational form the contradictions of the world-system, turning instead to the generation of violence, uncertainty, vulnerability and insecurity for humanity.” Gladys Hernández Pedraza, Center for Research on the World Economy, Havana, Cuba
“A US Marxist philosopher with much experience in Cuba, Charles McKelvey is a special invited member of the Cuban Society for Philosophical Investigations. We consider that his work is valuable for our Society, for its scientific seriousness and its ideological soundness.” Thalía Fung, Eternal President, Cuban Society of Philosophical Investigations
“I will be sharing widely Charles McKelvey’s commentaries on elections in Cuba. I was stumped when I first started learning about the way the elections and political system in Cuba functions. I recall asking a Communist Party rep in a hospital that we visited with the Che Guevera Brigade in eastern Cuba what it was exactly that she did and what the role of the CPC was. She and the nurses and doctors standing with us kind of stared at me blankly, clearly not understanding my question, or perhaps not understanding what the root of my confusion was. The root is of course, that we in the West can’t conceive of any form of ‘democracy’ other than one in which there are parties with daggers drawn. A non-adversarial model is beyond imagination of a consciousness, left or right, which was hatched in the petri dish of capitalist society, or perhaps more generically in class society. As McKelvey describes, ‘in eliminating a situation of competing political parties that must win elections to survive, people’s democracy removes the conflictive tendency of representative democracies, and empowers elected officials to concentrate on the seeking of consensus for the common good.’” Rosemary Hnatiuk, Manitoba, Canada
“Charles McKelvey’s work speaks to my head, my heart, my soul. It is one of my go to sources of knowledge and inspiration.” Barbara Humphrey
“I love reading Charles McKelvey’s work. Always challenging my thinking.” Alan Jenkins, Parish Associate, Oakhurst Presbyterian Church, Decatur, Georgia
Table of Contents
Preface i
Introduction 1
Chapter One 4
The Cuban anti-neocolonial revolution
Colonial Cuba and the Cuban struggle for independence
The Cuban neocolonial republic of 1902 to 1959
The Cuban Revolution and its quest for definitive sovereignty
The Revolution in power: Breaking the neocolonial relation
Cuba seeks good economic relations with her former neocolonial master
Chapter Two 25
The structures and process of Cuban people’s democracy
On the Cuban system of people’s democracy
Mass organizations
Exceptional Leadership: Fidel Castro Ruz
The Party
Chapter Three 57
The Constitution of 2019 and its legal and political repercussions
The 2017-2019 Constitutional Process
The continuity of the 2019 Constitution
New legislation based in the 2019 Constitution
A new family code
The Social Communication Law
Chapter Four 79
The Cuban Economy
Cuba and Latin America
A mixed socialist-oriented economy directed by a people’s state
The need for national consensus with respect to economic policy
The general characteristics of Third World socialist economies today
The Cuban Economic Crisis of 2019-2024
The war economy in Cuba
Problems in the distribution of the food basket
Problems in Transportation
Chronicling the intensification of the blockade
New strategies formulated in the Economic Plan of 2024
A national plan with creative implementation in local communities
Reflections on the socialist economies in today’s world
Chapter Five 109
Social disturbances during the economic crisis, 2021-2023
July 11, 2021: The revolutionaries retake the streets
They called a protest, and nobody showed
March 17, 2024: A protest amid deepening economic crisis
Chapter Six 139
The Battle of COVID-19
The Containment of COVID-19 in 2020
The unanticipated third peak in 2021
A nation of science and thought
Conclusion 154
The meaning of the Cuban Revolution for the world