Teetering on the Brink

Cuban scholars are not noted for fashioning consensus, much less unanimity. Yet it is unlikely that a Cubanist could be found who would not agree with the proposition that Cuba in 1992 is in the worst crisis of the revolution. It is perhaps arguable that the material situation on the island in 1969 was as difficult as it is today, but back in 1969 the revolution was young and the Cuban people for the most part were energetic and hopeful. Cuba was then an increasingly accepted and economically integrated member of the large world socialist community.The proximate cause of Cuba's present predicament is not hard to identify. Cuba has a small and heavily trade-dependent economy. In the presence of the US embargo, Cuba came to depend on the former Soviet trade bloc (CMEA) for over four-fifths of its imports. Without access to the US market, with access to other markets restricted and with imports from the former CMEA countries reduced by roughly two-thirds, Cuba's economy and its people are struggling to survive.The government's response to the crisis has been deliberate but inadequate. A number of reforms initiated prior to 1989 are being continued,1 others are being accelerated and some new programmes are being put in place. The new emphasis on foreign investment and tourism, structural reforms in the operation of foreign trade, and the impossibility of central planning in the presence of ubiquitous supply uncertainties have combined to transform the nature of Cuba's economic mechanism. Despite the promise of some extension of private enterprise and the market in the service sector, however, the needed and more concerted introduction of a broader market mechanism has not been forthcoming

Development economics · Economic collapse · Economics · Economy · Government (linguistics) · Impossibility · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Unanimity · Cuban History and Society

• Capital goods sector in small, open economies

  G Roger Jarjoura, Greg Jarjoura•Journal of Contemporary Asia•1994

  Añadir item

• Waiting for change

  Open Access•Manuel Pastor, Andrew Zimbalist•World Development•1995

  Añadir item

• Building better communities

  Open Access•Ariadna Fernández, Ariadna D Fernandez et al.•Women s Studies International Forum•2009

  Añadir item

• Havana and Kingston

  Thomas Klak•Urban Geography•1994

  Añadir item

• Can International Boycotts Transform Political Systems? The Cases of Cuba and South Africa

  Open Access•Kathleen C Schwartzman•Latin American Politics and Society•2001

  Añadir item

• The Cuban Economy

  George Lambie, Andrew Zimbalist et al.•Bulletin of Latin American Research•1991

  Añadir item