Bureaucratic socialism in reform mode: the changing politics of Cuba’s post-Fidel era

Abstract

Standard wisdom explains Cuba’s current transformation as one of economic change but political immobility. However, Cuban politics have also undergone a major change since the handing over of power from Fidel to Raúl Castro – even if the rhetoric used has been one of continuity. This article traces this process by looking at four areas: the depersonalisation and re-institutionalisation of the political structures; the diversification of the public sphere, particularly through the use of digital media; the liberalisation of travel and migration, with its transformative impact on state–citizen relations; and the turn to a moderate foreign policy, as highlighted by the rapprochement with the USA, with its implications for legitimising the underpinnings of Cuban socialism. Although the shift has been well below the threshold of a transition to multiparty democracy, Cuba has evolved from the charismatic model of the past to what can be understood as bureaucratic socialism in reform mode.

Keywords:

• Cuba
• political change
• transformation
• reforms
• socialism
• democratisation
• leadership succession

Notes

1. Mesa-Lago, Historia Económica.

2. For example, CEPAL, La Economía Cubana; Carranza et al., La restructuración; Dirmoser and Estay, Economía y reforma; Ritter, The Cuban Economy; and Mesa-Lago, “Cuba.”

3. Domínguez, Cuba; Eckstein, Back from the Future; Pérez-Stable, The Cuban Revolution; and Valdes Paz, La transición socialista.

4. Weber, On Charisma.

5. Hoffmann, “Charismatic Authority.”

6. Castro, “No enemy can defeat Us.” The original reads ‘Siempre he sido discreto, esa es mi forma de ser, y de paso aclaro que pienso seguir así’.

7. Castro, “Address to the 5th Plenary.”

8. The State Council’s note emphasised that Pérez Roque was ‘familiar with the ideas and thoughts of Fidel Castro as few others are’. Consejo de Estado, Designado Felipe Pérez Roque.

9. Dilla, “Alejandro Castro.”

10. Sánchez, “Country for Old Men.”

11. República de Cuba, Constitución.

12. Ibid.

13. The leadership saw the internet primarily as a political threat and – as a Cuban army publication put it – as ‘a weapon of war’ for the USA in its campaign of subversion against the Cuban revolution. Sánchez Villaverde, La informatización de la Sociedad. Fidel Castro himself warned at a public rally on 5 August 1995 that the US government ‘speak[s] of “information highways” […] which they want to impose on the world, through propaganda and the manipulation of human mentality’. Ibid., 39.

14. O’Donnnell and Schmitter, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule, 26.

15. Dimitrov, “Cartas a la Dirección.”

16. The improvised text is documented on the band’s facebook page, September 16, 2013. For a video of the concert see YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?LcNrlpYZ_A. See also Robinson, “Cuban Band Leader.”

17. For example, Geoffray and Chagacueda, “Medios de comunicación”; Henken, “Una cartografía”; and Hoffmann, “Civil Society.”

18. Díaz, “The State of News.”

19. Veiga, “Oposición leal.”

20. Díaz, “Renuncian editores.”

21. Temas, “USB.”

22. According to some estimates, the ‘paquete’ business moves between two and four million dollars a month and has become one of the largest employment opportunities in Cuba’s informal private sector. BBC Mundo, September 10, 2015, http://www.bbc.com/mundo/blogs/2015/09/150910_voces_desde_cuba_alejandro_rodriguez_paquete_semanal.

23. In the original: ‘A nosotros no nos molesta el “paquete” como idea, pero sí los valores, la cultura y los modos de actuación que pueda transmitir’. Quoted in Labacena Romero, “Recreación.”

24. The legal bases for this were § 91 of Cuba’s penal code and Law No. 88 (Ley de Protección de la Independencia Nacional y la Economía de Cuba) of 1999.

25. Comandante Ramiro Valdés, in declarations on Cuban state TV in 2009. In the original: ‘Tenemos que tratar que las masas participen en la solución de sus propios problemas y no esperar que papá Estado venga a resolverles y como los pichones: abre la boca que aquí tienes tu comidita. Así no es.’ A video of the TV appearance is documented at http://www.penultimosdias.com/2009/09/28/la-cita-del-dia-463/.

26. Consejo de Estado, Decreto-Ley No. 302.

27. Hoffmann, “Emigration and Regime Stability”. Cf. Hirschman, Essays in Trespassing, 226.

28. According to the Pew Research Center, 1,973,108 Cuban Americans were living in the USA in 2012. http://www.pewhispanic.org/2014/04/29/statistical-portrait-of-hispanics-in-the-united-states-2012/#detailed-hispanic-origin-2012. The US census of 2010 counted 1,785,547 Cuban Americans, including both native and foreign-born residents. www.census.gov.

29. European Parliament, “Guillermo Fariñas Receives.”

30. Feinberg, “Cuba’s Multi-level Strategy.”

31. LeoGrande and Kornbluh, “Six Lessons for Obama.”

32. For example, on 24 December 2007 Raúl Castro proclaimed, ‘[in Cuba] we have only one Party, but we have to transform ourselves into the most democratic Party that ever existed’ (‘tenemos un solo Partido, pero tenemos que convertirnos en el Partido más democrático que exista’). http://www.cubaencuentro.com/cuba/noticias/raul-castro-dice-que-el-pcc-debe-convertirse-en-el-partido-mas-democratico-existente-60536, July 24, 2007.

33. See, for example, “Concluyó entrevista on-line.”

34. Linz and Stepan, Problems of Democratic Consolidation.

35. Geddes, “What do we Know?”