28 Chapter 2
are disappointed with the Asian form of socialism, but only time will
tell.
Cuba belongs to the Western cultural tradition and has distinctive
traits in its history and in the history of its revolution that will allow it
to avoid the great inequalities that are emerging in the Chinese and
Vietnamese model of socialism and to improve democratic proce-
dures.
In this article I shall recommend policies that might contribute to
the construction of a twenty-first-century socialism. Although some
of these policies will be close to the modalities of the socialist market
economy, they aim to foster a Cuban socialism based mainly on new
moral values.^7
The Special Period in its Context
Signs of an economic crisis deeply rooted in a particular form of inef-
ficient socialism that produced high salaries in spite of low productiv-
ity began to appear as early as 1986, before the so-called Special
Period (1990-2006).^8 The Cuban leadership made an effort through
the “rectification process” of that year to return to the mystique of the
1960s. The chaos that resulted from perestroika and the perception
- There are many proposals by Cuban social scientists for changing the policies of
Cuban socialism. Some of these analyses are very critical of the government and argue
that the socialism in place is state capitalism (Campos, 2007) and that constitutional and
juridical modifications are urgently needed (Segura, 2008; 2010). Others writers are less
critical but also offer concrete proposals for change (in the economic sphere, Monreal,
2008; Carranza, Gutiérrez, and Monreal, 1996; Vidal, 2009; 2010; Pérez, 2010; Nova,
2010; in the political sphere, Guanche, 2009b; Chaguaceda, 2009; Sánchez, 2006;
Tablada, 2007; Martínez, 1993; 2001; in the social sphere, Espina, 2007; 2008; Alonso,
2007; in international relations, Alzugaray, 2009a; 2009b; Hernández, 2010a; 2010b;
2010c). In the United States Latin American Perspectives has published three issues
(164, 165, and 166) containing articles about the Cuban Revolution and relevant criti-
cism from the left. - One of the main deformations of the economic model was the practice of increasing
salaries in factories from an average of 300 pesos to more than 1,000 pesos because of
formal rather than real “overtime work.” After 1985, the peak year of a long period of
sustained economic growth in Cuba, the Cuban economy entered into a phase of stagna-
tion (Brundenius, 2009: 31). Import capacity declined from US$8,100 million in 1989 to
US$1,719 in 1993. To this was added the food insufficiency of the island and difficulty in
acquiring oil.