Book review

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.5.2.0204
• Published date: 01 October 2013
• Date: 01 October 2013
• Pages: 204337158-207
• Author: Stephen Wilkinson

204 BOOKREVIEWS

I J  C S 5.2 S 2013

behalf of the government to adapt policy as necessary. Although dry in parts,

tracing the continuities of democratic legacy reveals not only a high degree of

participation in present-day Cuba, but a legacy of democracy reaching back over

a century.

In all, however, objectivity remains the fatal f‌law in debates on Cuban and

American ideals. August is no exception. He freely admits to not having a

‘favorable attitude’ towards the U.S. system, but also rejects an ‘idealized view’

of Cuba or other similar neighbouring systems (p. xiv). He claims to offer a

balanced investigation and let readers decide, but this assertion is a bit generous.

The text repeatedly highlights the unfavourable attributes in the U.S. system,

while aff‌irming the redeeming qualities of Cuban and likeminded systems.

Readers seeking a clinical comparison on competing versions of democracy may

be disappointed. However, these factors should come as no surprise considering

the topic and August’s own admissions. More importantly, though, they do not

detract from the profound thesis he successfully delivers: proving there to be

unique democratic models based on active participation in unlikely places.

In sum, August succeeds in forcing readers to expand their horizons and

modify expectations on democracy. He makes a compelling case for Cuban

democracy in motion and the fallibility of U.S. centrism, leaving scholars with a

new prism in which to conduct future work on political models.

David Grantham, Texas Christian University, USA

Al Campbell ed., Cuban Economists on the Cuban Economy (University Press

of Florida, 2013) hb 337pp. ISBN 9780813044231 and Alberto Gabriele ed.,

The Cuban Economy after the VI Party Congress (New York: Nova, 2013)

hb 158pp. ISBN 9781622 574490

Reviewed by Stephen Wilkinson

These two volumes on the Cuban economy complement one another most seren-

dipitously in that the f‌irst, edited by Al Campbell, emeritus professor of economics

from the University of Utah, concentrates on an analysis of the Cuban economy

up to the adoption of the so-called Lineamientos or Guidelines for updating the

Cuban model in 2011, and the second, edited by Alberto Gabriele of the United

Nations in Geneva, is a briefer but more forward looking examination of the

changes to the economy after the Party Congress in which the Guidelines were

formally adopted. Armed with both these books, a scholar will be able to com-

prehensively evaluate the current state of the Cuban economy, understand the

problems and challenges it faces and assess its prospects for overcoming them.

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