About the Author

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Arnold August is an author, journalist and lecturer living in Montreal. He is the author of "Democracy in Cuba and the 1997-98 Elections" (editorial Jose Marti). He has also contributed a chapter entitled "'Socialism and elections"' for the volume "Cuban Socialism in a New Century: Adversity, Survival and Renewal" (University Press of Florida).

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Praise For…

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"A must-read for anybody seriously interested in Cuba and in the overall question of democracy and its practices." - Claudia Kaiser-Lenoir, Tufts University

"Arnold August cuts through the common propaganda about democracy in the U.S. and the supposed lack of democracy in Cuba. Where August's earlier work on the Cuban political system opened a window to this forbidden island, Cuba and Its Neighbours deepens our understanding of Cuba's participatory processes and shows how they have been shaped by Cuba's revolutionary history." - Cliff DuRand, Research Associate, Center for Global Justice, Professor emeritus of Social Philosophy, Morgan State University, Baltimore

"A trailblazing perspective. August contrasts the experiences in Cuba and some Latin American countries, where participatory democracy is taking shape, to the pretences of the U.S. model. Compulsory reading." - Claude Morin, Université de Montréal

"This book, a tour de force from an expert who clearly knows his field well, is one that goes out of its way to make us think about what we understand by 'democracy' and how we should view new manifestations in the 'Third World'. Not only is its conceptual and geographical scope admirably broad, but its familiar attention to the details of political participation are excellent, and, by taking a firm stance, the author forces us to address issues which are all too often taken for granted and left unquestioned." - Antoni Kapcia, The University of Nottingham