1.
Unicameralism
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In government, unicameralism is the practice of having one legislative or parliamentary chamber. Thus, a parliament or unicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of one chamber or house. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multicameralism, many multicameral legislatures were created to give separate voices to different sectors of society. Multiple chambers allowed for guaranteed representation of different social classes, ethnic or regional interests, where these factors are unimportant, in unitary states with limited regional autonomy, unicameralism often prevails. Unicameral legislatures are also common in official Communist states such as the Peoples Republic of China, similarly, many formerly Communist states, such as Ukraine, Moldova and Serbia, have retained their unicameral legislatures, though others, such as Romania and Poland, adopted bicameral legislatures. Both the former Russian SFSR and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were bicameral, the two chambers were the Soviet of Nationalities and the Soviet of the Union. The Russian Federation retained bicameralism after the dissolution of the USSR, the principal advantage of a unicameral system is more efficient lawmaking, as the legislative process is much simpler and there is no possibility of deadlock. Proponents of unicameralism have also argued that it costs, even if the number of legislators stay the same, since there are fewer institutions to maintain. There is also the risk that important sectors of society may not be adequately represented, approximately half of the worlds sovereign states are currently unicameral, including both the most populous and the least populous. Many subnational entities have unicameral legislatures, and all of the Brazilian states. In the United Kingdom, the devolved Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales, Congress of Deputies of Second Spanish Republic was unicameral between 1931 and 1936. Dissolved at the end of Spanish Civil War, the actual Spanish Parliament is bicameral, Supreme Assembly of Uzbekistan was unicameral before being replaced in 2005 by the current, bicameral Supreme Assembly. National Assembly of Cameroon was unicameral before being replaced in 2013 by the current, chamber of Peoples Representative of Equatorial Guinea was unicameral before being replaced in 2013 by the current, bicameral Parliament of Equatorial Guinea. National Assembly of Kenya was the unicameral legislature before becoming the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Kenya in 2013. National Assembly of Ivory Coast was the unicameral legislature before becoming the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Ivory Coast in 2016. Nebraskas state legislature is also unique in the sense that it is the state legislature that is entirely nonpartisan. In 1999, Governor Jesse Ventura proposed converting the Minnesota Legislature into a unicameral chamber. Although debated, the idea was never adopted, if those constitutional changes had been approved, Puerto Rico could have switched to a unicameral legislature as early as 2015
2.
Communist Party of Cuba
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The Communist Party of Cuba is the political party that rules in Republic of Cuba, although others exist. It is a Communist party of the Marxist-Leninist model, the Cuban constitution ascribes the role of the Party to be the leading force of society and of the state. Cuba had a number of communist and anarchist organizations from the period of the Republic. The original internationalised Communist Party of Cuba formed in the 1920s, in 1944 it renamed itself as the Popular Socialist Party for electoral reasons. The Communist Party is the recognized political party in Cuba. Other parties, though not illegal, are unable to campaign or conduct any activities on the island that could be deemed counter-revolutionary, for the first fifteen years of its formal existence, the Communist Party was almost completely inactive outside of the Politburo. The 100 person Central Committee rarely met and it was ten years after its founding that the first regular Party Congress was held. In 1969, membership of the party was only 55,000 or 0. 7% of the population, in the 1970s, the partys apparatus began to develop. By 1980 the party had grown to over 430,000 members, apparatuses of the party had grown to ensure that its leading cadres were appointed to key government positions. The Communist Party of Cuba held its first Party Congress in 1975 and has had additional congresses in 1980,1986,1991,1997, and 2011. The Seventh Party Congress took place from April 19 to April 22,2016, around the 55th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Secretariat, however, was re-introduced in 2002. There is also a Central Committee which meets between party congresses, at the Fifth Party Congress the size of the Central Committee was reduced to 150 members from the previous membership of 225. Fidel Castro was the partys First Secretary since its inception, while Raúl Castro was the Second Secretary, upon Fidels 2008 resignation from the Party and Cuban government, Raúl became First Secretary. The 7th Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba was elected by the Central Committee on 19 April 2016 following the 7th Party Congress. The 6th Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba was elected by the Central Committee on 19 April 2011 following the 6th Party Congress. The Communist Party of Cuba has a wing, the Young Communist League which is a member organization of the World Federation of Democratic Youth. It also has a group, the José Martí Pioneer Organization. Their most significant international role was in Angola where the Cuban direction of a joint Angolan/Soviet/Cuban force that was involved in the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale and this led to the withdrawal of intervening forces and, in the following peace agreement, the independence of Namibia from South African rule
3.
Two-round system
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The two-round system is a voting method used to elect a single winner, where the voter casts a single vote for their chosen candidate. The two-round system is used around the world for the election of legislative bodies, for example, it is used in French presidential, legislative, and departmental elections. In Italy, it is used to elect mayors, but also to decide which party or coalition receives a majority bonus in city councils. Historically it was used in the German Empire of 1871–1918, in New Zealand in the 1908 and 1911 elections, the two-round system is known as run-off voting in the United States, where the second round is known as a run-off election. Run-off voting is sometimes used as a generic term to describe any method involving a number of rounds of voting. By this broader definition the system is not the only form of run-off voting. However the subject of article is the two-round system. In Canada, for example, candidates for party leadership. It is like a method, except the one candidate must win a simple majority. Candidates with the fewest votes or candidates who want to move their support to other candidates may move to remove themselves from the next vote. In both rounds of an election conducted using runoff voting, the voter marks a X beside his/her favorite candidate. If no candidate has a majority of votes in the first round. In the second round, because there are two candidates, one candidate will achieve an absolute majority. In the second round, each voter is free to change the candidate he votes for, even if his preferred candidate has not yet been eliminated. Some variants of the system use a different rule for choosing candidates for the second round. Under such methods, it is sufficient for a candidate to receive a plurality of votes to be elected in the second round. Under some variants of runoff voting, there is no rule for eliminating candidates. In both elections, the communist candidate, Ernst Thälmann, did not withdraw and ran in the second round, in 1925, that probably ensured the election of Paul von Hindenburg, rather than Wilhelm Marx, the centrist candidate
4.
Cuba
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Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and it is south of both the U. S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the largest city and capital, other cities include Santiago de Cuba. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with an area of 109,884 square kilometres, prior to Spanish colonization in the late 15th century, Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian tribes. It remained a colony of Spain until the Spanish–American War of 1898, as a fragile republic, Cuba attempted to strengthen its democratic system, but mounting political radicalization and social strife culminated in the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Further unrest and instability led to Batistas ousting in January 1959 by the July 26 Movement, since 1965, the state has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba. A point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, a nuclear war broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America, Cuba is a Marxist–Leninist one-party republic, where the role of the vanguard Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Independent observers have accused the Cuban government of human rights abuses. It is one of the worlds last planned economies and its economy is dominated by the exports of sugar, tobacco, coffee, according to the Human Development Index, Cuba is described as a country with high human development and is ranked the eighth highest in North America. It also ranks highly in some metrics of national performance, including health care, the name Cuba comes from the Taíno language. The exact meaning of the name is unclear but it may be translated either as where fertile land is abundant, authors who believe that Christopher Columbus was Portuguese state that Cuba was named by Columbus for the town of Cuba in the district of Beja in Portugal. Before the arrival of the Spanish, Cuba was inhabited by three distinct tribes of indigenous peoples of the Americas, the Taíno, the Guanajatabey, and the Ciboney people. The ancestors of the Ciboney migrated from the mainland of South America, the Taíno arrived from Hispanola sometime in the 3rd century A. D. When Columbus arrived they were the dominant culture in Cuba, having a population of 150,000. The name Cuba comes from the native Taíno language and it is derived from either coabana meaning great place, or from cubao meaning where fertile land is abundant. The Taíno were farmers, while the Ciboney were farmers as well as fishers and hunter-gatherers, Columbus claimed the island for the new Kingdom of Spain and named it Isla Juana after Juan, Prince of Asturias. In 1511, the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa, other towns soon followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana, founded in 1515, which later became the capital
5.
Politics of Cuba
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Cuba has had, according to the Constitution, a democratic centralist political system since 1959 based on the one state – one party principle. Cuba is constitutionally defined as a Marxist–Leninist socialist state guided by the ideas of Marx, one of the fathers of historical materialism, Engels. The present Constitution also ascribes the role of the Communist Party of Cuba to be the force of society and of the state. Executive power is exercised by the Government, which is represented by the Council of State, legislative power is exercised through the unicameral National Assembly of Peoples Power, which is constituted as the maximum authority of the state. Fidel Castro has ruled from 1959 to 2016 before his brother took the power, Esteban Lazo Hernández is President of the National Assembly. Executive power is exercised by the government, the Ministry of Interior is the principal organ of state security and control. According to the Cuban Constitution Article 94, the First Vice President of the Council of State assumes presidential duties upon the illness or death of the President. Cuba has a national legislature, the National Assembly of Peoples Power. The National Assembly convenes twice a year in ordinary periods of sessions, however, it has permanent commissions to look after issues of legislative interest. The National Assembly also has permanent departments that oversee the work of the Commissions, Local Assemblies of the Peoples Power, International Relations, Judicial Affairs and the Administration. Article 88 of the Constitution of Cuba, adopted in 1976, provides for citizen proposals of law, in 2002 supporters of a movement known as the Varela Project submitted a citizen proposal of law with 11,000 signatures calling for a national referendum on political and economic reforms. The Government response was to collect 8.1 million signatures to request that Cubas National Assembly enact an amendment making socialism an unalterable feature of Cuban government. The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution is a network of organizations across Cuba. The organizations are designed to put medical, educational or other campaigns into national effect and it is the duty of the CDR officials to know the activities of each person in their respective blocks. Cuba is a one-party political system, suffrage is non-compulsory and is afforded to Cuban citizens who have resided for two years on the island. Such citizens must be aged sixteen years, must not have been found guilty of a criminal offense. Cubans living abroad are denied the right to vote, the national elections for the 612 members of the National Assembly of Peoples Power are held according to this system and the precepts of the 1976 Constitution. From 1959 to 1976, a legislative branch did not exist, in 1992 the Constitution was reformed to allow direct voting to elect members to the National Assembly
6.
Constitution of Cuba
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Cuba has had several constitutions since winning its independence. The current constitution was drafted in 1976 and has since been amended, events in early nineteenth-century Spain, prompted a general concern with constitutions throughout Spains overseas possessions. In 1808, both King Ferdinand VII and his predecessor and father, Charles IV, resigned their claims to the throne in favor of Napoleon Bonaparte, in the ensuing Peninsular War, the Spanish waged a war of independence against the French Empire. The Cortes included representatives from throughout the Spanish Empire, including Cuba, several models of constitutional government were proposed for Cuba. José Agustín Caballero offered a charter for Cuban autonomy under Spanish rule in Diario de la Habana in 1810, the next year, Bayamo attorney Joaquín Infante living in Caracas wrote his Constitutional Project for the Island of Cuba. He reconciled his liberal principles with slavery in Cuba, noting that slavery exited in the United States alongside republican government. Spanish authorities imprisoned him for his writings, in 1821, Félix Varela represented Cuba in the Cortes Generales of Spain during a short period when the Constitution of 1812 was revived. It was nominally in effect from 1869 to 1878 during the Ten Years War against Spain, two ad hoc constitutions were adopted in the course of Cubas fight for independence from Spain. It described relations between civil and military authority and it named key officials and outlined the requirements of a peace treaty with Spain. In September 1897, the met in La Yaya, adopted a new document on 30 October. The 1901 Constitution, was Cubas first as an independent state and it incorporated eight principles set out in the Platt Amendment without which U. S. During the presidency of Federico Laredo Brú, a Constitutional Assembly was elected in November 1939 to write a new constitution, the Assembly debated publicly for six months and adopted the constitution at the Capitol in Havana. It was signed by the delegates on 1 July 1940, and it provided for land reform, public education, universal healthcare, minimum wage and other progressive ideas, many of which were not implemented in practice. Fulgencio Batista suspended parts of this constitution after seizing power in 1952 and it was completely suspended after the Cuban revolution. After 16 years of government from 1959 to 1975, the revolutionary government of Cuba sought to institutionalize the revolution by putting a new constitution to a popular vote. The Constitution of 1976 was adopted by referendum on 15 February 1976, in which it was approved by 99. 02% of voters and it took effect on 24 February 1976. This constitution called for a control of the market and re-committed the state to providing its citizens with access to free education and health care. The state was granted the power to regulate the activities of religious institutions
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