User:Zleitzen/Cuba is not a democracy issue

"Cuba is the only state in the Western Hemisphere that is not a democracy"
'The aim of this guide is not to prove that Cuba is'' a "democracy". The report was written taking into account Wikipedia policies and guidelines concerning NPOV and Verfiability '''

The below report was drawn up following a debate on the Cuba page over whether the article should carry the statement "Cuba is the only state in the Western Hemisphere that is not a democracy" in the articles opening section. It is to illustrate the very broad meaning of the term "democracy" and to establish that there is a significant and verifiable belief that Cuba employs certain democratic practices. The information is arranged in order to question whether the statement should be given without citation, context and some counter argument.

Relevant statement from Neutral point of view policy
 * "Wikipedia is an international, collaborative project. Probably, as we grow, nearly every view on every subject will (eventually) be found among our authors and readership. To avoid endless edit wars, we can agree to present each of these views fairly, and not make our articles assert any one of them as correct. And that is what makes an article "unbiased" or "neutral" in the sense we are presenting here. To write from a neutral point of view, one presents controversial views without asserting them; to do that, it generally suffices to present competing views in a way that is more or less acceptable to their adherents, and also to attribute the views to their adherents."

Relevant statements from NPOV_tutorial concerning word ownership
 * "A common source of obstinacy in NPOV disputes is the belief that one group "owns" a word and has sole authority to define it."
 * "At the same time, the fact that you disagree with the way a word is used or defined does not automatically imply that there is a POV problem. You must also ensure that your assertions about alternative uses are both significant and verifiable, using appropriate attribution and citation."

Definitions of the word 'democracy'
"The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another. In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides" George Orwell, from his essay Politics and the English Language 1946

''“Democracy, shouldn’t be regarded in a simplistic, binary manner. There is no single characteristic according to which a nation definitely is or definitely is not democratic. There are, instead, a number of basic characteristics which go into making a viable democracy, and a nation may have some but not all of them. In addition, a country may do well on some of the characteristics it has, but do worse on others".''

Philosophers, political scientists, students of semantics and others have debated the meaning and implementation of the term "democracy" since the time of Plato. As a consequence, many different interpretations have arisen. Below are a few examples and definitions.

Dictionary Definitions
The definitions of the word democracy fall into to broad catagories, that of the governmental system and that of a principle of social equality.


 * medieval Latin democratia < Greek dēmokratia "rule of the people" < dēmos "people" + kratos "rule"


 * "Oxford Dictionaries
 * 1) A form of government in which the people have a voice in the exercise of power, typically through elected representatives.
 * 2) A state governed in such a way.
 * 3) A control of a group by the majority of its members.


 * American Heritage Dictionary
 * 1) Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.
 * 2) A political or social unit that has such a government.
 * 3) The common people, considered as the primary source of political power.
 * 4) Majority rule.
 * 5) The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community.


 * Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, 1989, ISBN 051768781X
 * 1) government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.
 * 2) a state having such a form of government.
 * 3) a state or society characterized by formal equality of rights and privlieges.
 * 4) political or social equality; democratic spirit.
 * 5) the common people, of a community as distinguished from any privileged class; the common people with respect to their political power.

centralized democracy

 * Chinese centralized democracy
 * Proposed Palestinian centralized democracy

pluralist democracy

 * Pluralist Model
 * An Iraqi Democracy Should Be A Pluralist Democracy

polyarchy/democracy

 * Pushing Polyarchy
 * Polyarchy: a paradigm
 * Wikipedia Polyarchy article

direct democracy

 * The Case for Direct Democracy
 * Direct Democracy in Cuba
 * Direct Democracy reviews
 * Is Cuba democratic?
 * Cuban Democracy
 * The Design of Direct Democracy.

other definitions

 * Oldest Living Participatory Democracy on Earth: Iroquois Confederacy
 * From totalitarian democracy to polyarchy
 * Benjamin Geer article: Democracy Without Borders?
 * Vandana Shiva book, subtitled Justice, Sustainability, and Peace; titled: Earth Democracy
 * Jean Grugel book: Democracy without Borders

Varying Wikipedia Definitions of democracies
Wikipedia Democracy disambiguations.
 * Democracy &mdash; a broad article on democracy, especially its application in modernity.
 * Liberal democracy &mdash; representative democracy with protection for individual liberty and property by rule of law.
 * Athenian democracy &mdash; democracy as originally invented; a majoritarian model.
 * Direct democracy &mdash; implementations of democracy in more pure forms.
 * Democracy (varieties) &mdash; all the other approaches to democracy in existence.
 * Scaling to global democracy
 * Referenda and semi-direct democracy
 * Indirect democracy
 * Alternative models of democracy
 * Approval voting is a voting system used for elections, in which each voter can vote for as many or as few candidates as the voter chooses.
 * Anticipatory democracy which relies on some degree of disciplined and usually market-informed anticipation of the future, to guide major decisions.
 * Athenian democracy (sometimes called classical democracy) was the democratic system developed in the Greek city-state of Athens (comprising the central city-state of Athens and its surrounding territory Attica).
 * Bioregional democracy (or the "Bioregional State")
 * Bloc voting refers to a class of voting systems which can be used to elect several representatives from a single multimember constituency.
 * Bucklin voting is a type of rank preference ballots voting system that can be used for single-member districts and also multi-member districts. It is also known as the Grand Junction system.
 * Cumulative voting A cumulative voting election is counted very similarly to a simple plurality election with the winners being the top vote-getters, however cumulative voters are allowed to split their own vote to some degree amongst multiple candidates. Cumulative voting is used heavily in corporate governance.
 * Corporatism a process by which the state uses officially-recognized organizations as a tool for restricting public participation in the political process and limiting the power of civil society.
 * Condorcet method is a kind of single winner election method, in which voters rank candidates in order of preference. A Condorcet method is a voting system that will always elect the 'Condorcet winner'; this is the candidate who voters prefer to each other candidate, when compared to them one at a time.
 * Consensus decision making is a decision process that not only seeks the agreement of most participants, but also to resolve or mitigate the objections of the minority to achieve the most agreeable decision.
 * Constitutional Democracy similar, or synonymous with Liberal democracy
 * Democracy (varieties)Wikipedia article about types of democracy.
 * Democratic capitalism is an economic ideology based on a tripartite arrangement of a market-based economy based predominantly on economic incentives through free markets, a democratic polity and a liberal moral-cultural system which encourages pluralism.
 * Deliberative democracy which focuses on hearing out every policy alternative, from every direction, and providing time to research them all.
 * Demarchy which has people randomly selected from the citizenry to either act as representatives, or to make decisions in specific areas of governance (defense, environment, etc.). One of the results of this would be the cessation of political parties and elections.
 * Democratic centralism a organizational method where members of a political party discuss and debate matters of policy and direction and after the decision is made by majority vote, all members are expected to follow that decision in public.
 * Democracy fallacy argumentum ad populum a fallacious argument that concludes a proposition to be true because many or all people believe it; it alleges that "If many believe so, it is so."
 * Dominant-party system is a party system where only one political party can realistically become the government, by itself or in a coalition government.
 * Discursive democracy is a theory of democracy advocated by Mike Williams, a Research Fellow at the University of Surrey, UK, involving public participation as a feature of state governance and as a tool for forwarding the position and interests of the state.
 * First Party System is the term historians give to the political system existing in the United States from about 1792 to 1820 which did not involve the political party system but which pitted the Federalists against the Jeffersonian Republicans.
 * Fourth Party System was similar to the Third Party System, practiced in the USA from 1896-1932, with the major difference being a larger role of campaign financing as a political power, corporate influence on the Republican Party and the advent of an opposition from a Progressive movement.
 * Grassroots democracy emphasizing trust in small decentralized units at the municipal government level, possibly using urban secession to establish the formal legal authority to make decisions made at this local level binding.
 * Instant-runoff voting is an electoral system used for single winner elections in which voters rank candidates in order of preference.
 * Jacksonian democracy A form of democracy popularized by President Andrew Jackson promoted the strength of the executive branch and the Presidency at the expense of Congressional power
 * Japanese Party System, also described as the New Party System, a democratic system theory brought forward by the political scientist Roger W. Bowen in his book ISBN/0765611031 and by Ronald J. Hrebenar in his book ISBN/0813330572 Japan's New Party System.
 * Jeffersonian democracy a form of government named for American statesman Thomas Jefferson.
 * Liberal democracy is a form of representative democracy (either a constitutional republic or a constitutional monarchy) where the ability of elected representatives to exercise decision-making power is subject to the rule of law, and usually moderated by a constitution.
 * Majoritarianism is a political philosophy or agenda which asserts that a majority (sometimes categorized by religion, language or some other identifying factor) of the population is entitled to a certain degree of primacy in society, and has the right to make decisions that affect the society.
 * Multiparty democracy A two-party system requires voters to align themselves in large blocs, sometimes so large that they cannot agree on any overarching principles.
 * New Democracy is a Maoist concept based on Mao Tse-Tung's "Bloc of Four Classes" theory in post-revolutionary China.
 * Non-partisan democracyis a system of representative government or organization such that universal and periodic elections (by secret ballot) take place without reference to political parties.
 * Oligarchy is a form of government where most or all political power effectively rests with a small segment of society (typically the most powerful, whether by wealth, family, military strength, ruthlessness, or political influence).
 * Parliamentary system a democratic system of government where the executive branch of a parliamentary government is typically a cabinet, and headed by a prime minister who is considered the head of government.
 * Participatory democracy which involves consensus decision making and offers greater political representation, e.g., wider control of proxies others trust them with, to those who get directly involved and actually participate.
 * Party-list proportional representation a family of voting systems used in multiple-winner elections (e.g. elections to parliament), emphasizing proportional representation. In these systems, parties make lists of candidates to be elected, and seats get allocated to each party in proportion to the number of votes the party receives.
 * Plurality voting system a voting system used to elect a single winner in a given election.
 * Polyarchy rule by the many may be accomplished through multiple elites representing distinct communities in a polity.
 * Preferential voting is an electoral system in which voters rank a list of candidates in order of preference. In other words (on the most common kind of ballot paper used) the voter writes a '1' beside her first choice, a '2' beside her second preference, and so on.
 * Proportional representation an electoral system in which every vote counts equally in the overall outcome of the body or bodies of representatives, creating a close match between the percentage of votes that political parties receive and the number of seats they obtain in legislative assemblies.
 * Range voting uses a ratings ballot; that is, each voter rates each candidate with a number within a specified range, such as 0 to 99 or 1 to 5. Unlike cumulative voting there is no limit on the total ratings given, just on the rating given to each candidate.
 * Referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal.
 * Second Party System A form of democracy practiced in the United States from about 1824 to 1854 that involved the advance of a well developed two party system of democracy.
 * Semi-presidential system is a system of government that features both a prime minister and a president who are active participants in the day to day functioning of government.
 * Single-party state is a type of party system government in which a single political party forms the government and no other parties are permitted to run candidates for election.
 * Single Transferable Vote a preferential voting system designed to minimise wasted votes and provide proportional representation while ensuring that votes are explicitly for candidates rather than party lists.
 * Social democracy A political philosophy that calls upon government to be for the people. In contrast to Socialists, modern Social Democrats do not believe in nationalizing Industry.
 * Soviet democracy is a form of democracy in which workers elect representatives in the organs of power called soviets (councils).
 * Third Party System as practiced in the United States from the mid to late Ninteenth Centure was characterized by intense voter interest, routine high turnout, unflinching party loyalty, dependence on nominating conventions, hierarchical party organizations, and the systematic use of government jobs as patronage for party workers.
 * Workplace democracy is the application of democracy to the workplace as opposed to conventional top-down management hierarchy.
 * Westminster system is a democratic system of government modelled after that of the United Kingdom system, as used in the Palace of Westminster, the location of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The system is a series of procedures for operating a legislature.
 * World democracy

Illustrative Google searches

 * Google search Cuba "Not a Democracy" 44,900 hits


 * Google search Cuba "direct democracy" 62,500 hits


 * Google search Cuba Democracy 18,800,000 hits


 * Google search Cuba secret ballot 517,000 hits


 * Google search Cuba "Secret Ballot" 85,100 hits

Other Relevant Citations and Further Reading

 * Linguist Geoff Nunberg discusses political language and the word democracy "Political language is a matter of artful reinterpretation -- neutralizing and blurring the words your opponents have used against you, and making slogans out of the ones that everyone takes for granted."


 * Norval, Aletta, ‘Radical Democracy’ in Clarke and Foweraker, (eds) Encyclopedia of Democratic Thought (London: Routledge, 2001).
 * Kohn, M., ‘Language, Power, and Persuasion: Toward a Critique of Deliberative Democracy’ (2000) 7(3) Constellations, pp. 408-429.
 * Laclau, Ernesto, ‘Democracy and the Question of Power’ Constellations (2001) 8:1, pp. 3-14.
 * Glynos, Jason, ‘Radical Democracy: Democratic Theory from an Anti-essentialist Perspective’ (2001) 17 Essex Papers in Politics and Government: Sub-series in Ideology and Discourse Analysis (University of Essex).
 * Schwartz, J. M., The Permanence of the Political. A Democratic Critique of the Radical Impulse to Transcend Politics, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
 * Roman, Peter, People's Power in Cuba (Westview Press, 1999)