FAR from Perfect: The Military and Corporatism

This paper explains the potential for the rise of state corporatism in Cuba during a transition to democracy. The focus is on examining the economic and political power of the Cuban military due to its involvement in the Cuban economy. The paper investigates Perfeccionamiento empresarial and how this program has led to a major increase in the power the military will wield during a post-communist transition. Surprisingly few authors writing about transition scenarios in a post-Revolution. Cuba take the FAR into account in describing change on the island. Many of those who do mention the military neglect to acknowledge the effects its growing power will have on the transition government. More recent work on transition in Cuba does treat the role of the FAR. Yet, even this newer scholarship fails to establish the connection between the swelling economic and political clout of elite manager-officers, the likely weakness of the transition government, and the possibility of the rise of another authoritarian system in Cuba. My essay seeks to fill in this gap in the literature, by investigating the potential for the emergence of authoritarianism based on a state-corporatist partnership between a weak transition government and elite FAR manager-officers.