The Updating of the Cuban Model: Precursor Socialism and Cooperativism

• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X17699904
• Published date: 01 November 2018
• Author: Ricardo R. Fuentes-Ramírez
• Date: 01 November 2018
• Subject Matter: ArticlesGovernance

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 223, Vol. 45 No. 6, November 2018, 140–155

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X17699904

© 2017 Latin American Perspectives

140

The Updating of the Cuban Model

Precursor Socialism and Cooperativism

by

Ricardo R. Fuentes-Ramírez

Cuba can best be conceptualized as a precursor socialist social formation that has not

necessarily begun a transition to capitalism. A case study of nonagricultural cooperatives

demonstrates that the current reform process in Cuba has included features that could be

foundational with respect to a new socialist formation characterized by participatory plan-

ning.

Idealmente, Cuba se puede conceptualizar como una formación socialista precursora

que no ha comenzado necesariamente una transición al capitalismo. Un estudio de caso de

las cooperativas no-agropecuarias demuestra que el actual proceso de reforma en Cuba

abarca características que podrían ser fundamentales a una nueva formación socialista

caracterizada por la planificación participativa.

Keywords: Cuba, Cooperatives, Socialism, Transition, Economic systems

The capitalist media and even many among the left seem to have concluded

that Cuba is undergoing a transition to capitalism (e.g., Feinberg, 2014;

Martínez, 2011; Reid, 2012; Wall Street Journal, 2010). For those who agree with

this idea, the restoration of diplomatic relations with the United States will only

fuel this process. This essay has two main objectives: to assess the claim that

Cuba is in transition to capitalism and to demonstrate that the new cooperative

movement could be foundational with respect to a new socialist formation

characterized by participatory planning.

From 2007 to 2010, a national debate took place regarding the future of the

Cuban model. Public meetings were held to discuss the first draft of the

Communist Party’s Economic and Social Policy Guidelines. This process, in

which 8.9 million Cubans participated, produced over 780,000 opinions, of

which 46.5 percent resulted in adding elements to the Guidelines, 4.9 percent

in eliminating aspects, and 1.8 percent in modifying aspects (García, 2012: 9).

The approval of the Guidelines marked the official initiation of the “updating”

(actualización) of the Cuban economic model. According to Ludlam (2012: 49),

the choice of the word “updating” is deliberate, the word “reform”’ being

avoided because of its association with the collapse of socialism elsewhere.

The introduction to the Guidelines states that their objective is to “ensure the

Ricardo R. Fuentes-Ramírez obtained his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Massachusetts–

Amherst and is an associate professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Puerto

Rico–Mayagüez.

699904LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X17699904LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVESFuentes-Ramírez / UPDATING OF THE CUBAN MODEL

research-article2017

Fuentes-Ramírez / UPDATING OF THE CUBAN MODEL 141

continuity and irreversibility of socialism.” It explains: “In the updating of

the economic model, planning will prevail, not the market. The centralized

planning of the economy and systematic control the State, government, and

its institutions must practice will ensure the efficient functioning of our sys-

tems” (Partido Comunista de Cuba, 2011).

TransiTion To CapiTalism or UpdaTing preCUrsor

soCialism?

In the apparent consensus that Cuba is in transition to capitalism, there is a

tendency to equate (or “identify”) private firms, regardless of their internal

character, with capitalism. If capitalism is equated with private enterprises

operating in a market economy, then even a market economy composed of

worker-owned and self-managed cooperatives, with the complete absence of

exploitation, would be considered a capitalist social formation. The existence

or predominance of private property or marketallocation clearly does not suf-

fice to characterize a social formation as capitalist. The presence of foreign

capital does represent capitalist processes within Cuba, but these would make

Cuba a capitalist social formation only if they were the predominant form of

production. Employing a theory of socialist transition that emphasizes the

dynamic character of the transition process, this essay will argue that Cuba can

best be conceptualized as a precursor socialist social formation that has not

necessarily begun a transition to capitalism.

Socialism is the transitional stage between capitalism and communism (see

Albert and Hahnel, 1992; Laibman, 2013; Lenin, 1918; Mandel, 1968; Marx,

1875; Nove, 1991; and Wright, 2010). Communism is an economic form in

which the means of production belong to society as a whole, surplus produced

by direct producers is not appropriated by another class (i.e., there is no exploi-

tation of labor), and decisions regarding the allocation of this surplus through-

out society include the participation of all citizens, including those who are not

necessarily direct producers. Communism is a system in which political and

economic institutions have matured and obtained a substantial degree of stabil-

ity and legitimacy. Socialism, precisely because it is a transitional stage, will

require the active involvement of the state in the continuous design and imple-

mentation of new political and economic institutions. Furthermore, it will most

likely inherit various processes from capitalism that will undermine it, and this

means that the state will be important in ensuring the move toward commu-

nism. When no distinct class appropriates the surplus produced by direct pro-

ducers, the economy can be considered socialist. What distinguishes it from

communism, as explained above, is the degree of maturity, stability, and legiti-

macy of its institutions.

This paper builds upon the categories of precursor and mature socialism

developed by Laibman (2013). In the following analysis, precursor socialism is

understood as the first substage within the socialist stage, occurring immedi-

ately after the political transition from capitalism. In it democratic control over

the means of production and decision making regarding the allocation of the

surplus throughout society are characterized by rudimentary and inefficient