A Constitutional Framework for a Free Cuba

Abstract

This essay proposes the framework of a mixed constitution for a free Cuba. By “free” I mean a republican, i.e., representative regime where the government is the product of competitive elections and the population enjoys judicially safeguarded political and civil rights. By “mixed” I mean one that, in keeping with Aristotle’s advice, incorporates several competing political principles or values in one coherent arrangement. Finally, by “constitution,” I do not mean simply “a mere demarcation on parchment of the constitutional limits of the several departments,” as James Madison aptly put it, for that “is not a sufficient guard against those encroachments which lead to a tyrannical concentration of all the powers of government in the same hands.” Rather, I have in mind what Sartori calls the “living” or “material” constitution, i.e., “the actual configuration of the system.” It is a structure or pattern of political power that is aimed at here, one that is expected to emerge from a set of enforceable rules specified in the constitutional text.