POL4463

Why do policy makers in Washington, D.C. continue to rail against the Cuban Revolution? Despite their best efforts, both Republican and Democratic administrations, the Revolution is still in place after six decades. How to explain? This is the central research question of the course. A definitive answer would require a thorough examination of the revolution from its initiation until today—which is beyond what can be done in a semester. The focus, rather, is more limited. First, how was the revolution made and consolidated—from 1953 until about 1969—and, second, how has it been able to survive and advance since the collapse of the Soviet Union, that is, since 1991? The emphasis here is on the role of leadership and strategy, how the Cubans and their leaders saw and see what they are doing—in their own words. This is an attempt to get into their heads, their understandings, through documents, speeches and writings.

In keeping with the goals of liberal education, this course helps students to think outside the box of conventional wisdom. Why, for example, an underdeveloped society lacking many of the characteristics of a liberal democracy can do a better job in meeting the basic needs of its citizens than its far richer neighbor to the north? What the Cubans seek to do is reorganize human relations on the basis of solidarity and not individual self-interest. How successful they have been in that pursuit is exactly one of the questions to which the course seeks to provide an answer. These questions are not simply of intellectual interest. Given the deepening crisis of world capitalism with the accompanying human misery, to know about Cuba's reality can have life and death consequences. Given, also, that the U.S. government doesn’t make it easy for most of its citizens to travel to the island to make up their own minds about its reality, this course is a unique educational opportunity.