This is the second of two volumes to bear witness to the Cuban experience. Together with its predecessor, Cuba: Twenty-Five Years of Revolution, it offers a positive account. Yet, it is sensitive to the dilemmas and flawed strategies in Cuba's thirty-year process of transformation. It warns that no preconceived notion of state or of development will help grasp the multifaceted nature of this nation, which reflects aspects of both developed and underdeveloped nations. Seventeen chapters, five of which are from Cuban contributors, thoroughly investigate recent political, economic, and social changes as well as the successes and failures of long-term development policies. Heavy attention is paid to the rectification process launched by Castro in 1986.This volume portrays a Cuba facing the 1990s with a burst of increased vigor in its efforts to secure continued far-reaching transformation. Seventeen chapters describe major changes in the economic realm caught up in the rectification campaign; a slow process of liberalization in the political sphere; and a Cuba that, in social terms, is far better off than any other Latin American country.

No preconceived notions of state or development will help grasp the multifaceted nature of this nation. Seventeen essays investigate the recent political, economic, and social changes; the successes and failures of long-term development policies; and the manifestations of the 1986 rectification program.

IntroductionThe Political: State, Society, and the CitizenThe Cuban Rectification: Safeguarding the Revoluton While Building the Future by Max AzicriSocialism and Democracy: Some Thoughts after 30 Years of Revolution in Cuba by Marifefi Pérez-StableThe Matter of Democracy in Cuba: Snapshots of Three Moments by Carollee BengelsdorfThe Changing Role of Law in Revolutionary Cuba by Debra EvensonHuman Rights in Cuba: Politics and Ideology by Tony Platt and Ed McCaughanThe Economy: Productivity, Development, and EquityThe Cuban Economy: A Current Assessment by José Luis RodríguezAgricultural Policy with Social Justice and Development by Eugenio R. BalariAgricultural Production Cooperatives and Cuban Socialism: New Approaches to Agricultural Development by Mieke MeursCuba's Economic Diversification: Progress and Shotcomings by Andrew ZimbalistSome Reflections on the Cuban Economic Model by Claes BrundeniusThe Supply of Consumer Goods in Cuba by Eugenio R. BalariThe Social: Systems of Relationship, Status, and Social ServicesThe Cuban Family in the 1980s by Lois M. Smith and Alfred PadulaCuba's New Professionals by Frank T. FitzgeraldThe Changing Class Structure in the Development of Socialism in Cuba by Mayra Espina Prieto and Lilia Núñez MorenoThe Catholic Faith and Revolution in Cuba: Contradictions and Understanding by Aurelio Alons TejadaCuban Housing Policy by Jill HambergWhither Cuban Medicine? Challenges for the Next Generation by Sarah M. SantanaSelected BibliographyIndex