IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 8 ENGLISH | Page 124

State and Society

Re-modernization of the
State: An Urgent Task
Manuel Cuesta Morúa
Historian and Political Scientist
Spokesman of Arco Progresista Party
National Coordinator of the Platform New Country
Member of the Citizens Committee for Racial Integration (CIR)
Havana, Cuba

A

fter more than 50 years, Cuba
needs a new contract, generated by State policies and anchored on the citizen as the sole source
of sovereignty and power. The type of
medieval state established by the Cuban
Revolution simultaneously opened two
original sources of law and sovereignty:
the Revolution and the People, but the
relationship between the Cubans and
their State became unhinged as the
former were placed at the service of the
later. All modern state should be, in
principle and because of principle, at
the service of its citizens, but in Cuba
the relation was inverted and the source
of legitimacy ended up in the confusion
between ownership and sovereignty,
which is the basic condition of all medieval states. Cubans can sue neither the
state nor its officials or bodies before
the courts. It’s more than just an abuse
of power: it’s the establishment of the
abuse of power as a structural principle.
The daily humiliation of citizens by
those who are supposed to be their
public servants is the clearest index of

perversion of this inverted relationship.
The lapse of two generations is enough
time for societies to enter into a new
contract. The sign of vitality within a
culture lies in the fundamental questions
that the governed ask the people in
power or seeking to exercise it. The key
is neither a simple adjustment nor a
correction of the mechanisms of coexistence, but a repertoire of new or slumbering questions that thoroughly challenges the views, forms of control, ways
of living, lifestyles and languages of
communication. This is more than
complaint, discomfort or restlessness;
it’s the expression of a basic mismatch
between the vision of society from the
power and that from the society itself.
By understanding this, leadership
emerges; by rejecting this, domination
or chaos arises. We have four generations without finding satisfactory answer for the fundamental questions. In
each generational question, the government has responded with a shift from
leadership to domination.

124