The Cuban Constitution: Democratic, Socialist and Republican?

Abstract

The current Constitution of Cuba—adopted in 1976 and updated in 1992 and again in 2002—is claimed is claimed as the foundation of a republican, socialist and democratic national order. ii It gathers, as does its Stalinist-inspired predecessor (the Soviet Constitution of 1936), a wide array of citizen rights—civil, political, social, economic and cultural—which it invokes from the objectives of constructing socialism, and alluding to mechanisms—vote-and-assembly structures—of republican lineage. However, for structural reasons linked to its current model and modes of operation, the constitutional text reflects precious little of the Island’s political reality. More than guide, the text obfuscates and confounds with respect to the loci and framework from which constituted power operates in Cuba.