Yet an understanding of the governmental context in which Cuban cooperatives operate is indispensable. One is enabled to grasp the executive and legislative framework in which cooperatives across Cuba are situated. The expectation that Roman might start with the Cuban Revolution is quickly put to rest upon a reading of the first two chapters. Sketches of Rousseau, Marx and Engels and the Paris Commune of 1871 are succinctly presented. Indeed, the OPP is central to the idea and practice of municipal government in Cuba.
Dictatorships depend upon rigid mandates forced down from above.
The formation of municipal economic plans has provided inputs into provincial and national economic planning processes. Roman concludes that Cuban municipal assembly delegates are legitimate elected representatives of the population who have become the embodiment of the integration of civil and political societies in Cuba. Their tasks are vitally important to the everyday, mundane but most pressing concerns of the Cuban population. To be a municipal delegate is rarely easy and never glamorous. The burn-out rate is high and delegates often do not seek a second term.