| During the last three decades of the Cold War, Cuba had one of the most collectivized, egalitarian, and subsidized economies within the Socialist Camp. The disintegration of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies in the early 1990s, resulted in a severe economic crisis for the island. The magnitude of this external sector shock prompted the Cuban leadership to implement a series of structural reforms with the objective of confronting the crisis, and reinserting the country into the capitalist world economy, while preserving the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution. Some of these reforms included: opening the island's economy to foreign investment, legalizing the possession and circulation of the U.S. dollar, reorganizing the agricultural sector, promoting some limited forms of self-employment, and restructuring state-owned enterprises (SOEs). However, despite the implementation of these measures, a fundamental question still remains: Are Cuba's post-Soviet economic reforms a legitimate transformation from socialism to a market system, or are they simply a disguised effort to ensure the survival of the current regime?; To address this question from a historical perspective, this thesis provides an account of the main characteristics of Cuba's economy before the disappearance of Soviet and Eastern European socialism. This is followed by a comprehensive analysis of the roots of the economic crisis of the 1990s, its socioeconomic impact, Cuba's strategies to confront the crisis, and an assessment of Cuba's post-Soviet economic reforms. To achieve this objective, this study relies on economic data collected from diverse official and independent sources, both in Cuba and abroad.; In summary, this study addresses the fundamental question: Is Cuba moving towards the market? Clearly, after more than a decade of limited economic reforms, the answer to this question is a definite “No.” In the words of Castro himself, “Cuba is not changing; it is reaffirming its position, its ideals, its objectives. It is the world that is changing.”1 As the present work shows, despite the implementation of some limited market reforms, the Cuban leadership's relentless desire to cling to the ideological orthodoxy of “Socialism or Death,” confirms that, regardless of the consequences, Cuba is not becoming a capitalistic market economy. In fact, unless current conditions change, Cuba will continue to sacrifice the possibility of a full-fledged economic transition to ensure the permanence and political survival of the current regime.; 1Pérez-Stable, Marifeli. The Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course and Legacy. Second Edition. Oxford University Press. New York, NY. 1999. |
