The Demands for Orderlines in the Cuban Revolution in the 1980s

摘要

Cuba enters the 1980s having witnessed impressive changes during the previous two decades. Cuba has become a major factor in the international system. Its revolutionary government has transformed many aspects of its own society, economics and politics. To its credit, it continues to build on its already impressive accomplishments in certain areas such as education and public health. This paper has had a much more modest goal: What are the demands for orderliness in the Cuban revolution. They are those of a regime that could be described as a 'consultative oligarchy'. The Cuban political system is neither the one-man terroristic dictatorship that its enemies claim nor the participatory egalitarian paradise painted by some of its supporters. Hierarchy, bureaucracy, performance, bargaining over organizational stakes -- these are the hallmarks of Cuban politics. Cuba is not unique in this regard, of course, but the two alternative descriptions just cited seem to be more prevalent. The political authority of the top leadership remains unchallenged in effect.