# Otro18 in Defense of the Law
Boris González Arenas Historian and Filmmaker Blog Probidad( Probity) Havana, Cuba
A n authoritarian political system undertakes legislative reforms by different reasons. In the 1970s, the Castroit regime ended its socalled revolutionary provisionality by implementing a new constitution and numerous complementary laws, including the electoral law. Rather than subjecting citizens to the rule of law, the new legislation endorsed the authoritarian practices from the previous decade and a half of the revolution. The notion of three powers was clearly defined as harmful( Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, Letra con filo, 1983) and the democratic centralism— adopted from the sodubbed socialist constitutionalism— secured the authoritarian form of government. Raúl Castro himself stated that the new constitution( 1976) was " the highest and most important legal norm of society "( Opening Address during the Act of Proclamation of the Socialist Constitution, February 24, 1976). However, time showed that its regulatory function would be less important than its political role, to the point that nowadays the very official academy states that, as a law, the constitution is neither properly nor effectively implemented, since the prevailing idea is that it ´ s rather a legal standard of programmatic nature than an operating juridical rule( Andry Matilla Correa [ Coordinator ], The Cuban Constitution of 1976: Forty years in force, 2016). Winds of reform are currently blowing and the constitution seems to be a target, although the Cuban nomenclature maintains absolute discretion about it. Notwithstanding, the Central Report to the Seventh Party Congress suggests that while new forms of doing business and trade will be constitutionally endorsed, the political rights will remain confined to the usual legal practice. The socialist constitution endorsed both the political and economic orders implemented during the first decade and a half of the revolution; for its later stages, the constitution will maintain the political order as the Castroit regimen opens up to new possibilities for market development and improved management. It ´ s not what the country needs. Recently, the eminent Cuban economist Omar Everleny Perez Villanueva remarked that if a new election law will enter into force, then it
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