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.
