IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 6 ENGLISH | Page 11

After President of the Platform for
Cuban Integration, Juan Antonio
Alvarado, gave the welcome and
presented the speakers, it was Madrazo
Luna’s turn to discuss his experiences
with workshops he coordinates and
offers all throughout Cuba, and how
deliberative democracy is an incredible
tool for generating diverse participation
from hundreds of citizens, and also
constitutes an attractive concept that gets
them to return to politics in a way they
find pleasant and engaging. His
experience shows that the level of
political disaffection among Cuban
citizens requires a model and methods of
participation that attract and do not
distance people from the building of the
country’s future. Thus, deliberative
democracy is useful in civil society to
achieve a conversation about diverse and
intersecting interests, and to create the
horizontality necessary to strengthen the
abilities and talents of all civic actors
when constructing diverse projects.
Madrazo
Luna
emphasizes
the
importance of knowledge sharing, both
for acting efficiently in the complex and
diverse scenarios that a lot of
information brings about, as well as for
influencing realities that are difficult or
resistant to change. In this way,
deliberative democracy coincides with
the sharing of knowledge when it
demands informed citizens able to argue
and make decisions that are based in
reason. Professor Cavalier’s presentation
guided us regarding the practical nature
of linking deliberative democracy and
the Constitutional Initiative Tables that

have been taking place within the
broader project of constitutional reform
that the Nuevo País Project has been
carrying out through its own efforts and
with support from the Platform for
Cuban Integration. His academic
presentation highlighted the preparation
needed for being able to rise step by step
in the project of deliberative democracy
by using a more far-reaching instrument,
with global implications, if we are trying
to bring about a fundamental and
impactful constitutional reform. This
instrument is deliberative surveys, which
h ]