Tensions in the Regime
By: MUJAL-LEÓN, Eusebio
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ArticlePublisher: Washington DC : Editorial Office, Jan./2009Journal of Democracy 20, 1, p. 20-35Abstract: Relative to other twentieth-century totalitarian experiments, the Cuban regime has developed a special mix of control, mobilization, and harassment. Since the crushing of internal opposition in the 1960s, the regime has created a system of vertical controls that concentrate power in the hands of the state and disempower and direct society, while in the process diminishing alternative or horizontal information flows, contacts, organizations, and solidarity networks. Over the past fifteen years, the regime has moved from full totalitarianism to a more transitional charismatic post-totalitarianism. Since Fidel Castro fell ill in 2006, the trend toward posttotalitarianism has deepened, and the pending question now is whether the Cuban regime will mature into this phase, or move toward another regime type.
Relative to other twentieth-century totalitarian experiments, the Cuban regime has developed a special mix of control, mobilization, and harassment. Since the crushing of internal opposition in the 1960s, the regime has created a system of vertical controls that concentrate power in the hands of the state and disempower and direct society, while in the process diminishing alternative or horizontal information flows, contacts, organizations, and solidarity networks. Over the past fifteen years, the regime has moved from full totalitarianism to a more transitional charismatic post-totalitarianism. Since Fidel Castro fell ill in 2006, the trend toward posttotalitarianism has deepened, and the pending question now is whether the Cuban regime will mature into this phase, or move toward another regime type.
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