In response to Mel: the following, from a paper by Tom Crumpacker on the Cuban political system, should explain why some leftists consider Cuba to be a participatory democracy, more democratic than the U.S. --- The Cuban Organs of People's Power (OPP's) are responsible for administration at the municipal and provincial levels and for legislative and constitutional matters at the national. Elections to the National Assembly (601 members) occur every five years. One half of the members are drawn from local and provincial OPP deputies and the other members are drawn from people from various walks of life, such as the trade unions, small farmers and women's federation. Thousands of nominations are made by the OPP's and citizens in these organizations. The job of the National Candidacy Commissions is to whittle these down to 601 nominees who are a "mirror of the nation." This is a continuous "consultation with the people" process, involving group sessions with many organizations representing millions of people. There must be at least two candidates for each local or provincial election (2 ½ year positions) and to be elected in any election, a candidate must receive 50% of the popular vote. The local and municipal OPP's are analogous to [US] town and county governing boards, but with much broader authority. They deal with community issues such as economic enterprise, planning, budgets, education, construction, health, employment, social services, environment, elections and many other matters. They have substantial participation by individuals and groups, which results from their broad authority. Decentralization of political power, which permits and promotes popular participation in decision-making, has been going on in Cuba for more than twenty years. Keys to Cuban style democracy are the periodic local accountability sessions and the neighborhood consultations ("consejos populares", meetings with local ombudsmen and local special interest group representatives who help resolve local issues), which have been seen as an adaptation of Rousseau's direct democracy model, delegates acting as agents of their constituents. There are many thousands of Cuban special interest groups in which most Cubans participate, seeking to improve their communities. Some are national or provincial only, most of them are local and federated at the provincial and national levels. They often use consensus process rather than "majority rules," similar to the US Green Party and other US grassroots groups. The local PCC groups advocate the long-term needs and ideals of the revolution before officials and the public. The more than 20,000 CDR's (Committees for Defense of Revolution) are neighborhood associations that do almost anything and everything, from locating emergency medical care to improving local peace and tranquility. They are also social and to some extent counteract the atomization and depersonalization of life in modern mass society. Other well known advocacy organizations are the Women's Federation, the trade unions, the small farmers' unions, the environmental groups, the student groups, scientific groups, religious groups and charities, social service groups, professional groups for teachers, nurses, doctors and cultural groups. These all have quick and easy access to official decision-making, and often are the main players involved in such. Mechanisms exist so that local groups can bring important matters up for discussion and decision even at the provincial and national levels. --- Sounds good, right? But something important is missing. PROGRAMMATIC DIFFERENCES between candidates is not allowed. You don't have to be in the Communist Party to be a candidate, but there's only one program to implement, and that's the CP's. If this were not so, if political pluralism were allowed, then the supposed participatory democracy in Cuba might live up to its pretenses. - Jason