Can Castro's Communism Contain the Entrepreneurial Spirit of its People?

Kay Zekany, PhD, CMA

The purpose of this paper is to explore Fidel Castro's communist and socialist beliefs - as articulated in his most public international speeches -- juxtaposed against the experiences of the Cubans he rules, all in an effort to begin to understand how the Cuban economy, with all its restrictions and mandates, works or fails to work. In particular, it explores Castro's fear of the free market ... as he calls it some kind of a "wild and crazy beast." And it explores his solution to capitalism which is to "socialize poverty" and "centralize global decision-making" to ensure that the world's resources are distributed to all according to their needs. This paper also presents a discussion of both legal and black market enterprise currently existing in Cuba. The final conclusion is that the entrepreneurial spirit of Cubans, despite being severely limited and meagerly compensated, persists, albeit with many obstacles.

(Presented at the Association of Private Enterprise Education Conference, Orlando, Florida, April
2005)