Politics and Civil Society in Cuba

(Axel Boer) #1

44 Chapter 2



  • The development of new formulae (cooperatives, self-management), especially in
    agriculture and services to make viable the double condition of producer and
    owner.

  • Democratic control and planning by the workers in all production and services
    centers according to their interests but in coordination with municipal and
    national priorities.

  • The establishment of monetary-mercantile intermanagerial contractual relations
    among all sectors. This will imply the modification of the budgetary current con-
    ceptions and the establishment of legal regulations to develop socialist self-man-
    agement.^29

  • The development of a national business community capable of establishing mixed
    companies with the state and with the foreign business community and allowing it
    to offer capital, technolog y, and markets.^30

  • An increase in the number of freelancers and their importance in the economy.
    This implies expanding the issuing of licenses for self-employment and applying
    low taxes to them according to their annual earnings.

  • An increase in the mixed sector in the majority of economic sectors.

  • The reduction of the state bureaucracy for regulating economic activity at the cen-
    tral level as a result of increasing decentralization and greater opportunities for the
    nonstate economy.

  • The development of a process for redefining the regulatory role of the state
    through a plan that guarantees the basic national interests of the people in a given
    period and reducing its bureaucratic dimensions and its administrative omnipres-
    ence.

  • An increase in the use of market mechanisms, including a flexible free price system,
    for the allocation and distribution of resources (not necessarily of the “market
    economy”) at the managerial level, with the consequent development of a manage-
    rial state economic system together with a mixed and private economy based on
    efficiency and the preservation of fundamental public services. This will mean a
    significant reduction of the black market.
    In the fiscal and financial spheres:

  • The development of fiscal and financial policies—a progressive tax system on rev-
    enues and profits for national and foreigners and indirect taxes on consumption (a



  1. This means not adopting the Yugoslav model but establishing a very clear link
    between the productivity of workers and their direct earnings through cooperatives of
    various sorts.

  2. The human capital and knowledge of the Cuban market of this national business
    community are very valuable assets for foreign investors. Proper regulations should be
    established for the development of these enterprises in order to avoid what has happe-
    ned in other former socialist countries and the enormous inequalities that have emerged
    in the countries with socialist market economies such as China and Vietnam.

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