Evaluating Against a Multi-Dimensional Economic Goal: A Sustainable and Prosperous Socialism

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.13.1.0105
• Pages: 105-126
• Published date: 01 July 2021
• Date: 01 July 2021
• Author: Al Campbell
• Subject Matter: Cuba,Cuban economy,socialism,Cuban economic goals,Cuban economic performance,multi-dimension goals

IJCS Produced and distributed by Pluto Journals www.plutojournals.com/ijcs/

ACADEMIC ARTICLE

EVALUATING AGAINST A MULTI-

DIMENSIONAL ECONOMIC GOAL:

A SUSTAINABLE AND PROSPEROUS

SOCIALISM

Al Campbell

University of Utah

Al Campbell is a retired Professor Emeritus of Economics from the University of Utah.

Relative to Cuba, he is an Editor of this journal. Besides his ongoing research on the

political economy of the Island, he is particularly interested in providing platforms

for Cubans to be part of the international academic discussion on Cuba, to present

their ideas on what is happening in their country. His edited Cuban Economists on the

Cuban Economy (2013, University Press of Florida), and the currently contracted book

on cooperatives in Cuba, are collections of works by Cuban authors on these subjects,

translated for presentation to the English-speaking world.

Abstract

The concept of evaluation of any existing or proposed policy only has meaning in

relation to some goal. Further, if the goal used for the evaluation is not the actual goal

of the actor involved, any conclusions about the effectiveness or appropriateness of

the policies are irrelevant for that actor. It is very common for people around the

world to evaluate the economic policies of Cuba relative to claimed effects on the

rate of growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), followed by discussions on what the

real effect on the GDP of the policies has been or will be. Given that Cuba has very

explicitly stated that its economic goal is a prosperous, sustainable socialism, such

considerations cannot constitute economic evaluations of policies for the country. A

proper evaluation is, however, complicated by the multi-dimensional nature of the

Island’s economic goal. This article considers six of Cuba’s most fundamental and

106 ACADEMIC ARTICLE – AL CAMPBELL

InternatIonal Journal of Cuban StudIeS 13.1 Summer 2021

commonly discussed economic policies as examples, to argue that in practice it is

very often, though not necessarily always, possible to design policies in such a way

that their evaluation relative to all the dimensions of Cuba’s economic goal does not

involve the potential problem of the “trade-off between dimensions” inherent to

any multi-dimensional goal.

Keywords: Cuba, Cuban economy, socialism, Cuban economic goals, Cuban economic

performance, multi-dimension goals

[Alice] "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the [Cheshire] Cat.

(Carroll 1865: 57)

Over the last three decades, Cuba has been slowly developing a new economy. It

is still very much a project “in progress”. A plethora of proposals has been gen-

erated by many different people over the years, both ones that are consistent

with and support the government’s general approach, and ones that argue that a

different approach would be better for Cuba’s economy.

The briefer first section of this work systematically discusses in general the

methodological issues involved in evaluating an economic policy against a multi-

dimensional goal. The issues addressed here apply to any country with a multi-

dimensional economic goal, and hence to the country that this article is concerned

with, Cuba. With the general methodological issues established by the first sec-

tion, the longer second section then illustrates, using six concrete examples, how

economic policies for Cuba must be evaluated. These examples are among the

most fundamental and commonly discussed policies for improving Cuba’s econ-

omy, from among the much larger number of proposals that are continuously

being generated.

Evaluating Economic Policies Against a Cuba

Multi-Dimensional Goal

The consideration of the methodological issue of evaluating an economic pol-

icy in relation to multi-dimensional economic goal will be presented in four

steps. The first step will briefly establish that the very concept of evaluation

itself requires a goal for the evaluation to carried out against. Then in this

frame of the need in general for a goal in order for evaluation to be possible,