This paper summarises the political economy of the Cuban revolution, then analyses the impact of the COMECON collapse, the unique measures of Cuban structural adjustment in the 1990s, and the outcomes and new challenges for the Cuban political economy. It concludes that the Cuban experience identifies a viable alternative means for an independent state to deal with and stabilise severe external economic crisis, and that the reformed Cuban collective institutions have been strong enough and have sustained sufficient public support to withstand this crisis. This paper also discusses several new challenges, which include a rising reliance on tourism, internal and external pressures for political reform, the introduction of a dual currency system, the management of new private foreign investment, and by continued US hostility through economic embargo and migration policy.
2002 Island socialism: Cuban crisis and structural adjustment PDF
Journal of Australian Political Economy, 49