Research report – Cuba

Alex Chețe

The only party in power is the Communist Party of Cuba. It was established on 3 October
1965 as the successor of the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, which itself was
formed by the 26th of July Movement and Popular Socialist Party that seized control of Cuba
after the 1959 Cuban Revolution. The party controls Cuba as a totalitarian one-party state
where political opposition and dissent are outlawed and suppressed. After an initial history
marked by direct confrontations with the United States, the Cuban Revolution openly aligned
itself at the end of the sixties and beginning of the seventies in the field of the socialist
countries led by the Soviet Union, in a world divided into two great economic, political and
military poles after the Second World War, a period known since then as the Cold War. In this
way, the institutionalization of revolutionary power in Cuba found in the organizational and
operating principles of the Soviet system the paradigmatic political model to consecrate the
revolutionary process, deeply rooted and having an impact on social, cultural, political, and
economic life. With this, a way of understanding a socialist society took root in the Cuban
reality and dragged all the vices of the Soviet model, characterized by an excessive centrality
of the State in all spheres of social and economic life, in the same way, that in the
constitutional order there had been an institutional framework characterized by an
underestimation of the rights and formal guarantees of citizens before the State, lacking real
mechanisms of citizen participation in the direction and control of the state apparatus (Bertot
Triana, 2019). The Communist Party of Cuba is faithful to the communist ideal. As the
superior leading force of society, it assumes the mandate of the people to guide and
coordinate the common efforts of the entire nation in the construction of socialism, based on
revolutionary principles and with a thorough sense of what is authentically Cuban (Editora
Política, 1998). The principles of democratic centralism, collective leadership, and individual
responsibility, as pillars of the organization and structure of the Party, remain fully valid and
the vocation to perfect it is based on them (PCC, n.d.). The party's governing theory,
Marxism-Leninism, was steadily institutionalized and is still today. Despite the long-standing
US embargo, the party pushed state socialism, which resulted in the nationalization of all
industries and the establishment of a command economy throughout the whole country of
Cuba. The PCC is a member of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties
and supports both Castroism and Guevaranism. The Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) ratified
during its eighth congress, which took place from April 16 to 19, 2021, that it exists to serve
and lead the people while also reciprocally taking their lead and following their examples
toward definite goals that have immediate successful outcomes, not just long-term objectives.

References
Bertot Triana, H. (2019). La Constitución cubana de 2019 en perspectiva histórica e ideológica:
Aproximaciones a su sistema político electoral. Revista De Derecho Público, (90), 11–40.

Editora Política. (1998). Estatutos del Partido Comunista de Cuba. Havana.

Partido Comunista de Cuba. Mission and Vision. Retrieved from pcc.cu: http://www.pcc.cu/mision-y-
vision