The Democratic Claims of Communist Regime Leaders: Cuba’s Council of State in a Comparative Context

Communist authoritarian regimes born of revolution claim that their rule is democratic, sponsoring elections that, even if uncompetitive, may supplement their claims to rule if the outcome rewards the most-voted with high posts and sidelines the lower-voted. In 2018, Cuba’s new president argued that the 2018 election shaped the new National Assembly and Council of State democratically: garnering electoral support and better inclusiveness by gender, race, and age. Indeed, across the 2003, 2013, and 2018 elections, the Council became demographically inclusive, matching or exceeding its East Asian communist regime peers. However, in Cuba as in Vietnam, election vote shares had little effect on Council membership; the most-voted were not rewarded, the lower-voted were not sidelined.