Re: [OPE] One party state?

The difference is quite simple for anyone with a modicum of knowledge re
Cuba. The two systems have very little in common other than that voting
takes place in both systems.

There are two parties, sometimes more, but realistically two, standing for
the elections in the US. You have to have millions of dollars to seriously
compete in those elections. A very large number of people do not vote, in
some recent elections they have been a majority. You could call the US a
plutocracy - rule by the very wealthy in the interests of corporate capital.

In Cuba the party does not stand in elections. It is not an election
concerning parties. People are nominated by the grass roots and mass
organisations, not by parties. Money plays no role in the election. This
applies to everyone including leading Communist Party members, who have to
be initially nominated at grass roots level. More than 90% of people vote.

I believe that Cuba has potentially the most democratic system in the
world. It is a complex system and cannot be neatly categorised in the way
Jurriaan attempts to do this.

David Yaffe

At 23:39 02/06/2009 +0200, you wrote:
>Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was quoted by the BBC as saying that
>Cuba's readmission to the OAS would be conditional on "democratic reforms"
>in Cuba's one-party state, but the BBC also said that the US might be
>"outvoted".
>
>My musing is: isn't the US itself pretty much a one-party state these
>days? The Republican Party has more or less collapsed and what remains of
>its leadership has been to a considerable extent integrated in the
>government apparatus, Mr Obama being careful to retain a workable degree
>of unity in the political class.
>
>What would be the substantive difference, in real terms, between the
>governmental systems of Cuba and the US, from the viewpoint of Joe
>Average? Maybe there are differences, but they may have much more in
>common than you would think!
>
>Jurriaan
>
>
>
>
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Received on Wed Jun 3 08:31:18 2009