Constituting Socialism for the Twenty-First Century: Examining Cuba's 2019 Constitution

Abstract

This article summarises the results of a qualitative content analysis of the 2019 Cuban Constitution, approved in a national referendum on 24 February 2019, and compares Cuba's constitutionally identified structures and processes with those highlighted as core characteristics of what has been termed twenty-first-century socialism. The article draws mainly on the work of Marta Harnecker (2010 and 2015), who includes the following features of twenty-first-century socialism: a) promoting participative democracy; b) creating the political instrument needed to lead the transition; c) instituting social ownership of the means of production; d) organising the economy toward satisfying human needs; e) having a decentralised (but aggregating) planned economy (including establishing worker-organised production as well as conceiving of efficiency as respect for nature and investment in full human development); f) incorporating material and moral incentives; g) educating for full human development and cultural transformation; and h) building regional (and international) integration. Cuba's 2019 Constitution overall measures up well with respect to these characteristics. The article concludes that Cuba's 2019 Constitution identifies structures and processes that are in line with the characteristics of twenty-first-century socialism. There is also evidence that Cuba represents a “unique model” (Burbach et al. 2013a), one that has been evolving since the 1959 Revolution, including during the Special Period of the 1990s and during the decade prior to the 2019 Constitution being approved, and one that has developed in the context of the US blockade and other hostile actions.