As of late there is a burgeoning discussion in the social sciences about how political mobilization and civil society affect the chances for a sustained democratic polity. One of the prevailing views in this literature asserts that the higher the rate of mobilization in civil society, the better the chances for a lasting democracy. In […]

The state’s entrepreneurial perfectionism that is being implemented in Cuba constitutes one of the fundamental links of the new economic policy being carried out by the governmental authorities and is an integral part of structural economic change that, in this arena, the Castro administration has developed in less than forty years. “It is a new […]

Notes1 I am honored to have been asked to comment on a book by Carmelo Mesa-Lago, a person I admire greatly for his tremendous contributions to the literature on social security in Latin America and on the Cuban economy. His work has always been scholarly and unbiased, and this latest endeavor is not an exception. […]

On my first visit to Cuba, a government taxi drove me to Havana’s Miramar district and dropped me off at the elegant Belgian embassy where I was to interview an official for a law school research project. The receptionist told me to wait outside the door on what looked like a porch or circular veranda. […]

Notes1 In a previous paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE), I analyzed Cuba’s economic performance in 1997-1998 (Mesa-Lago 1998) and the present paper continues that tradition. In 1999-2000, the Cuban economy grew at an annual average rate of almost 6% and yet, in 2000, […]