Cuba's Response to COVID-19: What Underlies its Apparent Success?

Over the last few months extremely positive accounts have been circulating of Cuba's role and approach in the COVID-19 response, both nationally and internationally. A universal healthcare system with family doctors and nurses providing door-to-door services, as well as the swift introduction of measures to control movement have been some of the factors underlying this relative success. However, this success hides the disadvantageous social reality facing the majority of Cubans, including differential access to services, a health system that is struggling and limited choice and freedoms.     

Sources of Mass Partisanship in Brazil

Scholars believe that mass partisanship in Brazil is comparatively weak. Using evidence from a 2002 national survey, however, this study finds that the aggregate level of party identification actually falls only slightly below the world average and exceeds levels found in many newer democracies. Yet this finding is misleading, because the distribution of partisanship is skewed toward only one party, the PT. This trend results from a combination of party organization and recruitment efforts and individual motivation to acquire knowledge and become involved in politicized social networks. Partisanship for other parties, however, derives substantially from personalistic attachments to party leaders. This finding has implications for current debates about the status of parties in Brazil. Also important is the impact of the 2005 corruption scandal implicating the PT and President Lula da Silva's administration.     

Feminizing Human Rights Adjudication: Feminist Method and the Proportionality Principle

Proportionality is one of the most important adjudicatory tools, in human rights decision-making, primarily employed to balance rights and interests. Despite this there is very little feminist analysis of its use by the courts. This article discusses the doctrine of proportionality and considers its amenability to feminist legal methods. It relies on theories of deliberative democracy to argue that the proportionality test can be applied in a manner that facilitates a more “interactive universalism”, allows for greater participation in decision-making and enables the courts to be more attentive to the disadvantaged. The commonalities between proportionality and feminist theory are examined, and its contribution to developing and reconstituting a more relational and contextual concept of rights is explored.