Last month I circulated information about an event I was fortunate enough to have been able to organize, a conference on comparative Marxist-Leninism and its important developments in the early 21st century (Conference Details: "Marxist-Leninism 2.0: Theory and Practice of Emerging Socialist Democracy in China and Cuba" 12 February 2019 Penn State University).
The conference brought together a marvelous group of academics from Europe, the U.S. and China to speak to issues around the new developments in China and Cuba, and their potential ramifications in areas of trade, foreign relations, globalization, and theory (especially constitutional and political theory)(Conference Concept Note). It was divided into two parts. The first was to consider the emerging structures of Chinese governance and its internal and global ramifications (Concept Note HERE). The second considered the developments of participatory democracy and engagement in Cuba around its 2018-2019 project of constitutional reform (Concept Note HERE).
Unfortunately an unanticipated snow and ice storm closed the university
on the day scheduled for the event. But with great good humor and a
spirit of adventure the conference participants regrouped. We were able to hold this second part of the Conference--Popular Participation, Representation and Constitutional Reform in Cuba--for the superb group of International Affairs students at Penn State's School of International Affairs. My great thanks to my collaborators, Flora Sapio (Uni Naples L'Orientale) and James Korman (Penn
State). Special thanks to Sun Ping (East
China University of Politics and Law); Nicolas Schultz (Ludwig-Maximilians Uni); Keren
Wang (Penn State), Miaoqiang Dai (Penn State) for their intense consideration of the presentation of our draft, The Democratic Constitution of Illiberal States—An Empirical
Approach to Theorizing Popular Participation, Representation and
Constitutional Reform in Cuba. Their comments and observations were deeply appreciated and profound.
Ironically our event was scheduled for the same time that the Organization of American States organized its own program considering aspects of the Cuban constitutional project,“The New Cuban Constitution and the Inter-American Democratic Charter” (video here). It is also no doubt worth considering, though it likely approaches the issues we discussed from an entirely different framework ("At the Washington conference, the General Secretariat of the OAS considered Cuba’s constitutional referendum “illegitimate” and said that this measure only serves to “mask” the “dictatorship” before the international community" here). Our project seeks to place that constitutional project within a wider context and offers a means of judging constitutional reform principally against the government's own political model.
Link to the Videorecording of the Presentation, Popular Participation, Representation and Constitutional Reform in Cuba , along with the PowerPoints follow below (with apologies--due to some difficulties with the equipment the first few introductory minutes of the presentation were lost; but the presentation itself recorded well). We hope you enjoy watching the proceedings as much as we enjoyed the engagement. We are grateful to the Coalition for Peace and Ethics, the Foundation for Law and International Affairs, for helping to make this possible.
Ironically our event was scheduled for the same time that the Organization of American States organized its own program considering aspects of the Cuban constitutional project,“The New Cuban Constitution and the Inter-American Democratic Charter” (video here). It is also no doubt worth considering, though it likely approaches the issues we discussed from an entirely different framework ("At the Washington conference, the General Secretariat of the OAS considered Cuba’s constitutional referendum “illegitimate” and said that this measure only serves to “mask” the “dictatorship” before the international community" here). Our project seeks to place that constitutional project within a wider context and offers a means of judging constitutional reform principally against the government's own political model.
Link to the Videorecording of the Presentation, Popular Participation, Representation and Constitutional Reform in Cuba , along with the PowerPoints follow below (with apologies--due to some difficulties with the equipment the first few introductory minutes of the presentation were lost; but the presentation itself recorded well). We hope you enjoy watching the proceedings as much as we enjoyed the engagement. We are grateful to the Coalition for Peace and Ethics, the Foundation for Law and International Affairs, for helping to make this possible.
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(Popular Participation, Representation and Constitutional Reform in Cuba
Concept Note HERE)
(Popular Participation, Representation and Constitutional Reform in Cuba
Concept Note HERE)
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