CUBA: Socialism and Development

by Rene Dumont ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1970

Dumont, a well-known French agronomist whose last book was The Hungry Future (1969), spent 1960-63 trying to help reconstruct the Cuban economy. Basing his judgments on technical expertise, convictions about what socialism ought to be, and trans-political attitudes toward work, he categorically denounces the blunders, bureaucratic excesses and undemocratic policies of the Cuban agricultural experiment. Friction with his hosts (particularly Che) ran high as Cuban leaders also seemed unable to separate Dumont's political views from his technical opinions. Dumont describes a situation where 40 agronomists and 4000 art students were educated, bureaucrats made key decisions, and wildly overoptimistic plans produced agricultural waste, misallocation and under-utilization of resources. Dumont's solution: smaller producer cooperatives with greater financial autonomy to create a stronger profit incentive. Cuba's policy changes of 1964 date the book (though Dumont notes the switch in an epilogue). For this reason and its sketchiness of exposition, readers familiar with Cuba and/or tropical agriculture may be disappointed; less specialized readers will find the book hard to evaluate due to the strong self-justificatory overlay on Dumont's picture of Cuban policy, but highly apposite to broader questions of underdevelopment.

Pub Date: June 1, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Grove

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1970

Categories: NONFICTION