We are very pleased to introduce the inaugural Features article of Cuba Counterpoints. Velia Cecilia Bobes exemplifies the cosmopolitanism and rigor of a scholarship that is as concerned with developments in Cuba as with social theory. In this piece she addresses a central question for observers of US Cuba dynamics since the Fall of the Soviet bloc, which is: is Cuba headed for a Western-style political democracy? Are economic reforms a catalyst for a democratic transition? On the basis of the Eastern European experience, Bobes points at the possible outcomes in light of a softening in U.S. economic pressure, which until now was a significant obstacle for change. Her verdict: maybe.
As the central core of this project, articles in the Features section will present balanced analysis, original perspectives, and evocative narratives for a general readership interested in furthering its knowledge and appreciation of Cuban culture, society and politics, on and beyond the island.
Ariana Hernandez-Reguant and Esther Whitfield,
Features editors
Cuba 2015: Perspectives on Democratization. By Velia Cecilia Bobes
translation from the original Spanish by Samuel Ellis Ginsburg and the editors
The economic reforms carried out by Raul Castro’s government have laid the ground for a change in relations between Cuba and the United States. But these reforms have also put into motion a profound process of social transformation that sooner or later will reach the political system. Whether or not this process brings about greater democratization depends on various factors.
The US government has recognized the failure of its Cuba policies and claims to welcome new ways to aid the empowerment of Cuban civil society. In particular, it is making some of the embargo laws’ restrictive measures more flexible, such as facilitating travel to Cuba by US citizens, raising remittances’ limits, permitting information and commerce flows, financial transactions and the transfer of communication technology. According to President Obama, these measures are geared, in part, to strengthening a private sector that has grown thanks to “reforms [that Cuba has made] to gradually open up its economy.” These reforms are part of the Cuban government’s plan for “updating socialism,” which seeks to address the very issues that gave rise to the dispute between the two countries.
If the breakdown of relations and the establishment of the embargo were a response to the nationalization of large American and Cuban companies, Raul Castro’s contemporary reforms initiate an opposite process of economic denationalization.
Indeed, the enactment of a new foreign investment law makes this so-called “denationalization” of certain sectors of the state economy both possible and legal. At the same time, however, the growth of the private sector creates an economic sphere disconnected from state logic.
It must be clarified that this new strategy of “updating socialism” is the culmination of an economic restructuring that began during the period following the Soviet demise (known as the Special Period). This restructuring included the legalization and promotion of foreign investment, the legalization of self-employment and foreign currency holdings (and thus a dual currency system), a massive cooperativization of agricultural production, the streamlining of state services through a reduction in state employment, and the implementation of a fiscal policy. All of this led, on the one hand, to a timid movement toward a market economy with minimal political changes. On the other hand, it resulted in a reorganization of Cuban civil society, with the rise of some NGOs and small independent associations.
Raul Castro’s new economic strategy furthers the existing policies, emphasizing market strategies and economic rationality, such as the expansion of the private sector through a reduction in state employment, an expansion of private property, and the incentivization of self-employment. The parallel development of a dual currency system, the elimination of job security in some sectors, and the devaluation of wages has had dire social consequences. The most salient are the growth of social inequality (in terms of income, consumption, space/territory, living conditions and access to services and social prestige), and especially of poverty (racialized and gendered). Most conspicuous are new elite groups (business people, managers, artists) that are associated with new forms of property and labor, and which configure new networks of relationships and new patterns of action, generating new hierarchies, forms of cooperation, and intra-group solidarity.
Raul Castro´s new strategy also includes changes to social policy and its principles. For example, it redefines socialism as the “equality of rights and opportunities for all citizens, not egalitarianism,” and modifies the role of the state to that of a mere provider that promotes the individual’s autonomy before state paternalism, decreasing its participation in the social welfare net. These processes are key to a future reconsideration of the social contract. Most importantly, the reformulation of the state-society relationship presents new challenges to the state’s legitimacy. The retraction of the state from the system of redistribution of goods and services favors the strengthening of civil society, as new economic realities lead to interest-based associations. Just as importantly, the state’s contraction erodes its needed role as both counterweight and platform for the articulation of social demands.
At the same time, the model of citizenship that prevails today continues to subordinate civil and political rights to social rights, generating a kind of citizen that is not autonomous, but passive and state dependent: one who lacks effective power. This model of citizenship, which obstructs collective action by reinforcing a disinterest in politics, responds to a model of society -homogeneous and egalitarian- that is quickly becoming obsolete. Restricted civil and political rights effectively hinder the emergence of autonomous institutions (independent unions, civic organizations) able to challenge government decisions and make demands.
The lack of autonomous spaces for the articulation of society’s claims against the state thus restricts the synergies that could bring about ongoing social pluralization and autonomy. Instead, individuals and groups stay subordinates to the state and, as such, become increasingly vulnerable.
In conclusion, faced with the emergence of new economic actors and a growing social differentiation, the government should find effective strategies of incorporation, leading to a gradual democratization of Cuban politics and society. The new stage of the normalization of relations with the United States could have a positive impact in these processes. Indeed, without a hostile climate of bilateral relations, the economic reform can be consolidated, even as the prevailing rhetoric continues to be based on a discursive construction of confrontation and war, as in the ongoing government calls to maintain a “vigilant attitude” vis-a-vis the US government’s proposals.
Image: 2009 Commemorative Stamp for the 50th anniversary of the Revolution.
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