Historiographers of the Special Period
There is considerable literature on the Special Period, and specifically, a
rich spectrum of views concerning Cuba’s economy. Since the early 1990s, political
economists, sociologists and journalists have differed in their attempts to classify
the Cuban economy during the recession of the Special Period. Political economist
Carmelo Mesa-Lago has maintained that however liberalized, the Cuban
economy upheld its socialist fundamentals throughout the Special Period.
Journalist Ben Corbett counters this assertion, offering that Cuba actually became
capitalist during the recession. Although these two clearly define the Cuban
economy, writers like Archibald Ritter choose to comment on the reforms without
classifying the Cuban system. My argument differs from these in proving tha t
Cuba’s economy was neither fundamentally socialist nor capitalist during the
Special Period—rather, it was a mixed economy.
I will begin my discussion of Special Period literature by commenting
briefly on the importance of attempting to classify the Cuban economy during the
Special Period. The study of the Cuban economy during the 1990s is crucial to an
understanding of how Cuba has grown economically under Castro’s reforms. More
importantly, this type of analysis opens windows into the future of the Cuban
economic state. Economist Archibald Ritter provides substantial evidence of
economic liberalization in Cuba during the Special Period, but fails to classify the
Cuban economy during this time. In “Entrepreneurship in Cuba”, Ritter clearly
argues that entrepreneurship grew strongly in Cuba during the Special Period.
Though this argument is quite useful, it falters in its inconclusiveness.
viii What
type of economy did Cuba have during the 1990s?
Mesa-Lago has claimed to show that Cuba conserved its socialist nature
throughout the Special Period. In Market, Socialist and Mixed Economies, he
compares the economies of Chile, Cuba and Costa Rica, assigning them officia l
economic policies of free market, socialist and mixed, respectively. He asserts
that, “although the policies of the 1990s are dramatic, the Cuban model retains
its fundamental features,” claiming that even though some free market policies
crept into Cuba during this era, the basic foundations of socialism were
preserved.
ix As my work will show, Castro’s policy restructured the economy by
encouraging Cubans to embrace legal capitalist policies while other parts of
society remained centrally planned. Mesa-Lago underrates the impact of the
reforms, claiming that they brought “timid, piecemeal, selective market
measures.” x But as I will demonstrate, the reforms were much more influential in
hybridizing the Cuban economy.
Mesa-Lago’s argument is closer to reality than Corbett’s theory that Cuba
became capitalist during the Special Period. Corbett spent a considerable amount
of time in Cuba conducting research, but his biases against the Castro regime are
apparent in his cursory analysis of Cuban economics in the Special Period. In his
latest work, This is Cuba, Corbett asserts that, “Really, Cuba already is
Capitalist…the Cuban government has become capitalist.”xi This is a gross
exaggeration; though Castro liberalized the Cuban economy to an extent, many of
the vestiges of socialism remained through the Special Period—rationed food,
nationalized transportation and free basic health care, to name a few. Clearly,