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While Fidel Castro maintained his longtime grip on Cuba, revolutionary scholars and policy analysts turned their attention from how Castro succeeded (and failed), to how Castro himself would be succeeded—by a new government. Among the many questions to be answered was how the new government would deal with the corruption that has become endemic in Cuba. Even though combating corruption cannot be the central aim of post-Castro policy, Sergio Díaz-Briquets and Jorge Pérez-López suggest that, without a strong plan to thwart it, corruption will undermine the new economy, erode support for the new government, and encourage organized crime. In short, unless measures are taken to stem corrupti...
The economic crisis of the 1990s has propelled the second economy from behind the scenes to center stage. Not only have black markets mushroomed, but second economy activities connected to the free-market that the Castro government has traditionally discouraged or even prosecuted are now being incorporated into the government's own economic strategy. Self-employment, cultivation of individual plots, and the use of foreign currencies to buy or sell goods, are now promoted with considerable enthusiasm by the leadership.
This publication examines the contemporary state of Cuba's economy at a time of great transformation. Using econometric and other macroeconomic analysis tools, its authors have taken advantage of the recent availability of official economic statistics to offer new insights into longstanding questions about Cuba's economic behavior. Cuba's economy is embarking on one of the most sweeping transformations it has encountered since the Revolution began in 1959, with a series of decisions that have begun to transform Cuba's economic landscape.
What led to the dramatic social and economic reforms introduced by Cuba¿s president Raul Castro. How effective have those reforms been? And what obstacles does Castro face in overcoming the country¿s chronic socioeconomic woes? Cuba Under Raul Castro addresses these questions, offering a comprehensive analysis of the president¿s efforts during his first six years in office.
"Mesa-Lago and Pérez-López have achieved the rarest of feats: they have given us a dispassionate, data-rich, comparative, provocative, and policy-oriented analysis of Cuba''s aborted economic reforms of the last decade."--Ted Henken, Baruch College, CUNY "The most calm and careful analysis yet of Cuba in 2005."--Irving Louis Horowitz, Rutgers University "An excellent contribution to the economic literature in Cuba . . . A must read for scholars interested in Cuban affairs, as well as for those with broader concerns such as U.S. foreign policy and general prescriptions for countries transiting to more liberal economic policies . . . Timely and well documented . . . Highly recommended for th...
One of the key issues that faces Cuban policymakers today, and will continue to face them, is what steps to take in order to ensure the future of the sugar industry. In 2002, nearly one-half of the country's cultivated land was occupied by the 156 fully functional sugar mills, more than a dozen plants and refineries, and the complex transportation infrastructure brought about by the commerce. The loss of preferential markets for Cuban sugar that arose from the demise of the international socialist community constitutes a crisis that the Cuban government has only begun to address, with a radical restructuring plan that would foresee the reduction of sugar land and the elimination of about 100...
"Extremely useful to scholars and readers interested in Latin America, socialist countries in transition, U.S. foreign policy, comparative political and economic systems, [and] revolutionary change. . . . Will be an excellent textbook in courses related to those subjects."--Carmelo Mesa-Lago, University of Pittsburgh By October 1991, when Cuba's Fourth Communist Party Congress met, international communism had crumbled, and Cuba, mired in a deep recession, faced serious internal pressures and a hostile external economic environment. These essays reflect the political and economic concerns highlighted at the congress. Despite their interdisciplinary approaches and differences in point of view,...
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