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Got banned for this elsewhere (lemmy.ml)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/leftymemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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North Korean Democracy: People as masters of their own destiny. Three parties, the Workers' party of Korea (private membership), the Korean Social-Democratic Party (private membership), and the Chondoist Chongu Party (private membership). First, they suggest candiates (we know what people want, trust me bro). Then the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea decides the candidates (You spoke, we listened). Then, the people vote yes or no for a single candidate option (Yes! or No, I prefer a different candidate chosen by the same people.) The mass line is when party leaders live among the workers, listening really hard to what they want (How do you do, fellow workers?) The candidates are elected to the Supreme People's Assembly (legislature). The Supreme Peoples Assembly says "no orgies." The Kiminlsungist-Kimjungilists say "Ah yes, the will of the people."
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[–] 1 point 6 months ago (5 children)

In Cuba there are actual local elections between members of the local community. Those competing must be in good standing with the party, but that's fairly standard.

In N Korea the party selects the candidate and they run unopposed.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago* (4 children)

    Interesting. But requiring being in good standing with the party is already enough to make these elections illegitimate. And given the lack of dissent allowed and the subservient position local officials typically have to national leaders this seems like a very small difference to me.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    Interesting. But requiring being in good standing with the party is already enough to make these elections illegitimate.

    There are plenty of political parties across the world that require candidates to be in good standing with the party before running for them in an election.

    It's not like any political party is going to be happy if an infamous person is representing them in an election.

    If anything your grievance should be with single party democracies. Then again, there are plenty of single party states that aren't criticized anywhere close to Cuba.

    Like I said, democracies need to be weighed on a scale. Plus, simply being a democracy doesn't necessarily mean a country is going to be a more equitable or virtuous society.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago* (2 children)

    Yes, the issue is with single party states because in such states, the party and the state are basically synonymous. Insofar as a party is a voluntary organization, it's fine to set standards for ideological unity. But once those standards become a requirement to access political power, your state is functionally no longer democratic.

    And sure, there are other one party states, and they're also bad. But I'm criticizing the Cuban government specifically because it has more defenders on Lemmy than those states do. Just look at how many angry comments I got.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (1 child)

    sure, there are other one party states, and they're also bad.

    Is there a metric in which you use to determine if a country is good or bad? Surely it's not just democracy = good?

    Cuba (when not being illegally embargoed) has much higher living conditions, education, and access to healthcare when compared to other "democratic" countries with similar demographics.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago*

    Respect for autonomy and worker's rights is important. Cuba does well in some metrics and very poorly on others. For example, few people know that they have one of the highest rates of incarceration of any country on earth. That's not a sign of some socialist paradise, whatever other achievements they might have.

    But I would generally look at an array of metrics but political freedoms are an important component, especially when we're discussing government since unlike other metrics it's totally within their power to control.

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