Reviews

The Cuban Revolution:
Origins, Course and Legacy
by Marifeli Perez-Stable, Oxford
University Press, 1993, 236 pp.,
$23 (cloth).
Marifeli Pdrez-Stable, a Cuban-
American sociologist, tells the
story of the origins and trajectory of
the Cuban revolution from a point
of view that combines her appreci-
ation of its egalitarian social and
economic accomplishments and her
sharp critique of its centralized
planning structures and done-party
political system. There is a wealth
of historical information here, all
tied into the well-argued premise
that the great successes and failures
of the past 36 years must be under-
stood as part of the dynamic in
which the country itself became
identified with the revolution, and
the revolution with the charisma of
one man.
Weaving through the book is
Pdrez-Stable’s elaboration of what
she calls “the dynamic of Fidel-
patria-revolution,” which she
defines as “the affirmation of
national sovereignty, the promulga-
tion of social justice, and the
integrity of revolutionary leader-
ship.” The last element required that
a vanguard be formed to safeguard
the revolution from dissent, to build
socialism, and to educate workers
who might be “confused” about the
nature of their long-term interests.
She traces the dynamic from May,
1960 when, against the backdrop of
unrelenting U.S. attempts to under-
mine the revolution, Fidel informed
a million Cubans in Havana that
there would be no elections. They
shouted back, P6rez-Stable tells us,
that the people had already “voted,”
and the rest, as they say, is history.
She understands the mid-1980s
“rectification” process-the attempt
to return to the charismatic roots of
the revolution-as well as the cur-
rent attempts to institute market-ori-
ented reforms within the one-party
context as later moments within this
same dynamic.
NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS
The Problem of Democracy
in Cuba: Between Vision
and Reality by Carollee Bengelsdorf, Oxford University Press, 1994, 229 pp., $45 (cloth), $16.95 (paper).
In this engrossing, lucidly written
book that grapples with the question
of democracy in Cuba, Carollee
Bengelsdorf argues that the inability
of the Cuban revolution to imple-
ment Karl Marx’s vision of the rule
“of the immense majority, in the
interest of the immense majority”
can be traced in large measure to the
“unresolved and perhaps unresolv-
able weaknesses” of Marx’s con-
ception of socialism and democracy.
The most crucial of these, she
claims, was Marx’s failure to ac-
knowledge the need for boundaries
between the state and civil society.
As a prelude to her detailed dis-
cussion of the Cuban revolution,
Bengelsdorf reviews Marx’s writ-
ings on democracy and the state,
Lenin’s reworking and adaption of
that theoretical heritage, and the dis-
tortions of this legacy in the practice
of Soviet socialism over the course
of the twentieth century.
The triumph of the Cuban revolu-
tion, Bengelsdorf argues, offered an
opportunity to recover the pro-
foundly emancipatory vision at the
heart of Marxist theory. She traces
how, over the years, the revolution-
ary leadership wrestled with the the-
oretical and actual heritage of social-
ism. She makes a compelling case
that the government at critical
moments reopened the discussion
of how to achieve full democratic
participation, but then-in the inter-
est of party unity-implemented
policy changes that significantly
hedged its bets. Today, with the rev-
olution once again at a moment of
transition and redefinition, there is
yet another chance to deal with
these issues. If the leadership refus-
es to cede a reasonable amount of
autonomy to civil society, she con-
cludes, the revolutionary project
must in the end fail.