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The economy of Socialist Cuba: A two-decade appraisal
JOURNAL
OF COMPARATIVE
ECONOMICS
7,469-470
(1983)
ARTHUR MACEWAN, Revolution and Economic Development in Cuba. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 198 1. xvi + 265 pp. $22.50. CARMELO MESA-LAGO, The Economy of Socialist Cuba: A Two-Decade Appraisal. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 198 1. xvi + 235 pp. Cloth, $17.50; paper, $9.95. Now that 20 years of the Cuban Revolution have passed, progress reports are to be expected. MacEwan and Mesa-Lag0 both survey contemporary Cuba and the achievements of the past two decades-Mesa&ago as a “pluralist,” neo-classical economist and MacEwan from a Marxist perspective. But progress reports can take at least two different forms: they can be forward looking, in the sense that they evaluate how far an economy still lies from “perfection”; or they can look backwards, and assessthe successesand failures of an economy, from its beginnings. Mesa-Lag0 and MacEwan provide good examples of the second type of appraisal. Mesa-Lag0 evaluates the performance of the Cuban economy since 1960 in terms of its achievement of goals common to most developing economies: sustained economic growth, diversification of production, external economic independence, full employment, and equality in distribution. The book is a formidable case study of the trade-offs that are necessary between the competing and sometimes incompatible aspirations of a young stateeconomy. Mesa-Lago’s analytical framework, relating performance to ideology, instruments, and goals, allows him to place in perspective virtually every aspect of Cuba’s economy-agriculture, industry, energy, trade, laborforce participation, inflation, social policy-which, in the admirable tradition of the Pittsburgh comparative economics group, he illustrates with substantial funds of data. Despite the title of his book, Mesa-Lag0 is reluctant to appraise. The value of his work lies in the extraordinary completeness of his survey, and in a chronology of the “Changing Economic Policies of the Revolution” which will be of interest to students of comparative systems. The different planning models used in Cuba since 1960 are discussed and classified in terms of Soviet and other socialist economic models. MacEwan is less concerned about providing a source book of the Cuban economy. He deals mainly with how the relations of production in agriculture have changed and been changed since 1959, and with their contribution to Cuban economic progress. He documents the “proletarianization” and expansion of the farmer/peasant class, and discusses in some detail the con469
0147-5967183
$3.00
Copyright 0 1983 by Academic Press. Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved
470
BOOK REVIEWS
tributions of the two Agrarian Reforms, the Literacy Campaign, the planning agencies (JUCEPLAN and INRA) and the various mass organizations. The book succeeds in clarifying the roles, interplay, and effectiveness of the main power groups and also explains satisfactorily the apparent incongruity of proletarian revolution in an agricultural setting. But in comparison with Mesa&ago’s extensive coverage, MacEwan treats the foreign sector, the money system, natural resources, fuel, and power shabbily or not at all. Both studies are optimistic and congratulatory about Cuba’s performanceMesa-Lag0 cautiously so, and MacEwan with less restraint. But they are looking at the very recent past-and often cannot provide data for later than 1976. A 1982 report to the Joint Economic Committee of the U. S. Congress is less sanguine: for instance, since Mesa-Lag0 and MacEwan wrote, Moscow has warned CMEA countries (which now include Cuba) to expect reductions in oil deliveries below the 1980 level for the 198 1-1985 period (Theriot, 198 1, p. 115). So, at the very least, Soviet “guarantees” of oil to Havana have become less certain, and Cuba’s prospects correspondingly dimmer. Furthermore, Cuban hard-currency debt climbed to about $2.6 billion by the end of 1980. The necessity of servicing this debt makes it even less likely that Cuba can reduce her destabilizing dependence on sugar, which accounts for 83% of her total exports and is her main generator of hard currency. Gloomy portents like these suggest that historical appraisal that confines itself to a “self-contained” evaluation of a certain timespan will give a very different picture of Cuba’s progress than an assessment of how Cuban achievements have fitted the Revolution to survive the 1980s. Both books, and particularly Mesa&ago’s study, through the facts they present, do not rule out the possibility that the 1980s will be difficult for Cuba. But they concentrate on how far Cuba has come. They do not indicate how far she has yet to go. REFERENCES Theriot, Lawrence H., “Cuba Faces the Economic Realities of the 1980s.” In East-West Trade: The Prospects of 1985, pp 104-135. Compendium of Papers, Joint Economic Committee, U. S. Congress. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Govt. Printing Office, 1982. ADRIENNE Yale University New Haven, Connecticut
CHEASTY
OF COMPARATIVE
ECONOMICS
7,469-470
(1983)
ARTHUR MACEWAN, Revolution and Economic Development in Cuba. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 198 1. xvi + 265 pp. $22.50. CARMELO MESA-LAGO, The Economy of Socialist Cuba: A Two-Decade Appraisal. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 198 1. xvi + 235 pp. Cloth, $17.50; paper, $9.95. Now that 20 years of the Cuban Revolution have passed, progress reports are to be expected. MacEwan and Mesa-Lag0 both survey contemporary Cuba and the achievements of the past two decades-Mesa&ago as a “pluralist,” neo-classical economist and MacEwan from a Marxist perspective. But progress reports can take at least two different forms: they can be forward looking, in the sense that they evaluate how far an economy still lies from “perfection”; or they can look backwards, and assessthe successesand failures of an economy, from its beginnings. Mesa-Lag0 and MacEwan provide good examples of the second type of appraisal. Mesa-Lag0 evaluates the performance of the Cuban economy since 1960 in terms of its achievement of goals common to most developing economies: sustained economic growth, diversification of production, external economic independence, full employment, and equality in distribution. The book is a formidable case study of the trade-offs that are necessary between the competing and sometimes incompatible aspirations of a young stateeconomy. Mesa-Lago’s analytical framework, relating performance to ideology, instruments, and goals, allows him to place in perspective virtually every aspect of Cuba’s economy-agriculture, industry, energy, trade, laborforce participation, inflation, social policy-which, in the admirable tradition of the Pittsburgh comparative economics group, he illustrates with substantial funds of data. Despite the title of his book, Mesa-Lag0 is reluctant to appraise. The value of his work lies in the extraordinary completeness of his survey, and in a chronology of the “Changing Economic Policies of the Revolution” which will be of interest to students of comparative systems. The different planning models used in Cuba since 1960 are discussed and classified in terms of Soviet and other socialist economic models. MacEwan is less concerned about providing a source book of the Cuban economy. He deals mainly with how the relations of production in agriculture have changed and been changed since 1959, and with their contribution to Cuban economic progress. He documents the “proletarianization” and expansion of the farmer/peasant class, and discusses in some detail the con469
0147-5967183
$3.00
Copyright 0 1983 by Academic Press. Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved
470
BOOK REVIEWS
tributions of the two Agrarian Reforms, the Literacy Campaign, the planning agencies (JUCEPLAN and INRA) and the various mass organizations. The book succeeds in clarifying the roles, interplay, and effectiveness of the main power groups and also explains satisfactorily the apparent incongruity of proletarian revolution in an agricultural setting. But in comparison with Mesa&ago’s extensive coverage, MacEwan treats the foreign sector, the money system, natural resources, fuel, and power shabbily or not at all. Both studies are optimistic and congratulatory about Cuba’s performanceMesa-Lag0 cautiously so, and MacEwan with less restraint. But they are looking at the very recent past-and often cannot provide data for later than 1976. A 1982 report to the Joint Economic Committee of the U. S. Congress is less sanguine: for instance, since Mesa-Lag0 and MacEwan wrote, Moscow has warned CMEA countries (which now include Cuba) to expect reductions in oil deliveries below the 1980 level for the 198 1-1985 period (Theriot, 198 1, p. 115). So, at the very least, Soviet “guarantees” of oil to Havana have become less certain, and Cuba’s prospects correspondingly dimmer. Furthermore, Cuban hard-currency debt climbed to about $2.6 billion by the end of 1980. The necessity of servicing this debt makes it even less likely that Cuba can reduce her destabilizing dependence on sugar, which accounts for 83% of her total exports and is her main generator of hard currency. Gloomy portents like these suggest that historical appraisal that confines itself to a “self-contained” evaluation of a certain timespan will give a very different picture of Cuba’s progress than an assessment of how Cuban achievements have fitted the Revolution to survive the 1980s. Both books, and particularly Mesa&ago’s study, through the facts they present, do not rule out the possibility that the 1980s will be difficult for Cuba. But they concentrate on how far Cuba has come. They do not indicate how far she has yet to go. REFERENCES Theriot, Lawrence H., “Cuba Faces the Economic Realities of the 1980s.” In East-West Trade: The Prospects of 1985, pp 104-135. Compendium of Papers, Joint Economic Committee, U. S. Congress. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Govt. Printing Office, 1982. ADRIENNE Yale University New Haven, Connecticut
CHEASTY