Dr. George Lambie writes, “Arnold August has been the most assiduous analyst of the Cuban electoral process for a decade and a half.” Dr. Lambie is professor of International Political Economy (Globalisation), Literature and Politics, and Latin American Politics at De Montfort University in Leicester, U.K. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Cuban Studies and the author of books and articles on Cuba. In the introductory editorial of this journal, Dr. Lambie writes a note on the articles published in the Spring 2014 issue, including my research paper on the Cuban political process. To read his complete editorial comment and my full research paper, which I just published on my web site (November 21, 2014) click here
I would like to state for the record that late George Novack’s book Democracy and Revolution has analyzed the 3 main stages of democracy-read forms of government- in the Greek times, in the bourgeoise/imperialist period as well as the socialist democracy with examples of it under the leadership of the Bolshevicks and the Cuban Revoltuion. However, when we try to understand socialist democracy and an updated analysis with complete facts/photos to prove the point; nothing comes close to the work done by our dear friend Arnold August. In fact I for one have not seen any such in depth work on the workings of the socialist democracy in Cuba and how without millions of dollars in expenditures for having an election Cuba has proved to have an election system that allows the very ordinary inhabitant of the island to run for the highest organ of power of Cuba which is the Cuban National Assembly or the National Assembly of the People’s Power.
I suggest to anyone who cares about democracy and would like to learn something-even without reading the text and just looking at the wealth of the photos provided in his books-read Arnold August.
In the web of lies that are woven daily against Cuba the last refuge of the scoundrels, after all else has been dis proven, is always, ‘yes but Cuba is not democratic’. I guest lecture in community colleges in California on Cuba and the case of the Cuban 5 and often the discussion goes down that path and I am thankful that I have Arnold August’s 2 well researched books on the subject to reference and fall back on. Meticulously explaining the electoral process in Cuba and the process of participatory democracy that has evolved from the revolution is essential to anyone’s complete understanding of the reality of political involvement in Cuba. Every social science department dealing with Cuba should have Cuba and its Neighbors – Democracy in Motion and Arnold’s earlier work Democracy in Cuba readily available to be studied.