Is Cuba Abandoning Its Revolutionary Marxist Economic System?

For years now the writing has been on the wall. Over the last decade two great factions within the Cuban governing elite have been debating the future course of Cuban economic development.  On the one side stood the governing apparatus of traditionalists tied to the old Soviet model of development.  This group assumed there was no flaw in the Soviet model and they were determined to show that they could succeed where the Soviet sphere failed.  On the other stood progressives, with significant elements in the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias, that increasingly looked to East Asian models of development as a means of preserving the political system while modifying the economic system to preserve political stability and the legitimacy of the leadership role of the Party.  The battle between the two sectors of the governing elite appeared to tip in favor of the Raulistas at the beginning of September, 2010, when in a carefully staged interview, Fidel Castro appeared to concede the point. And so it is important to ask, at this point, what the Cuban elite is permitting to be said about this change.  For that purpose, a recent article in the Communist Party paper may be of help. Leticia Martínez Hernández, Mucho más que una alternativa, Granma, Sept. 24, 2010.

To read the rest of the analysis, see Cuba Responds to Globalization and Reorganizes its Political Economy: Revolution, Retrenchment or Small Steps Towards Market Engagement Within a Marxist Framework Under the Leadership of a Vanguard Party Apparatus.