Julio César Guanche (libraries, houses of culture, cinemas, theatres)— with the State as guarantor, created over time “the first welfare state in Latin America” (Burchardt 2006), with incomparably high levels compared to the regional average. Its accumulation is still today —along with a nationalist ideology— the essential basis of political consensus —whatever its current degree, which is difficult to calculate accurately. The joint development of these and other indicators made Cuba the first Latin American country to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations, despite suffering a politics of embargo by the United States government that lasted, with modifications, from 1961 to today. The text of 1976 —according to Fernández Estrada—established the principles of equality (with extraordinary advances in terms of “race” and gender) and dignity as the axis of the political and social system. It did not foresee alignments with international military blocs (Cuba never subscribed the Warsaw Pact). However, it did consecrate the ideology —in democratic republican terms— of social justice, struggle for freedom, national independence and defence of the sovereignty of the people—on which it based an active and justice-based right of asylum. Furthermore, it gave priority to the public over the private interest in economic relations —it did not recognise private property or freedom of enterprise and prohibited the “exploitation of man by man”. In terms of political power, it regulated the system of “popular power” as a the form of Cuban State, recognising popular sovereignty (through resources such as elections, popular legislative initiatives (with 10 thousand signatures of voters), processes of accountability and revocation of mandates by popular election), and established a unitary territorial structure and a democratic political regime (VVAA 2009). The greater institutionalisation of this new political system in 1976 —in the opinion of Valdés Paz— allowed for a better division of political work and a better distribution of decision-making functions, representations and power. Subjects and actors gained more equality within the political system, not only as a result of the greater equality of society as a whole, but also because of the extension of citizens roles as assembly members, voters and combatants in the territorial militias. This increased equality of opportunity and decreased inequality between hierarchical and grassroots positions. Regarding subjects and actors, their active and passive suffrage were generalised, although in 1976 the provincial and national assemblies were integrated by means of indirect voting, a matter that was reformed in 1992. The system gave way to a greater participation in the execution of solutions through paid or voluntary work and in social control, through the exercise of complaints, accountability and the punishment vote (Valdés Paz 2009, p.82). The legal status of citizenship confers rights of active participation and control over political representation. For example, the institutional design regulates voting in periodic elections and popular referendums and legislative initiatives as forms of direct participation. However, its analysis reveals limitations in its exercise: local, provincial and national government programs are not defined through the electoral process, as candidates present themselves to elections without a government program. The power of the National Assembly of People’s Power to call referendums —both executive and legislative— on matters other than constitutional reform has not been exercised since 1976, nor have popular legislative initiatives on behalf of 10 thousand citizens and the declaration of unconstitutionality can only be exercised by the ANPP itself, although none are known since 1976. In addition to a broad list of social, cultural and family rights, citizens have duties, understood as a civic practice, to “take care of public and social property, abide by the discipline of work, respect the rights of others, observe the norms of socialist coexistence and fulfil civic and social duties” (Article 64); regarding the “defence of the socialist fatherland [as] the greatest honour and supreme duty of every Cuban”, with obligatory military service (art. 65) and “to RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/3 - © 2020 Author(s) 19