The University of Sheffield
Department of Politics

Undergraduate Modules: POL3021 - Cuba in the Post-Bipolar World

Level: 3
Credits: 20

Module Leader: Dr Steve Ludlam

Description

Cuba is a political enigma about which perceptions vary, and vary dramatically. On the one hand, it is a Caribbean paradise celebrated across the world for the liberated exuberance of its music and dance, and visited by millions of tourists. Across the developing world, it is celebrated for its first-world welfare state, as an anti-imperialist stronghold exporting its brigades of health and education workers, and for its fighters' role in the defeat of apartheid in southern Africa. Yet, on the other hand, especially from Washington and Miami, it is seen as a communist hulk kept afloat by the iron will of the Castro brothers, Marxist-Leninist dictators denying their oppressed people integration into the 'free world'. To some, therefore, it is an inspiring miracle, to others an inexplicable curse, that the Cuban Revolution has survived the disintegration of the 'socialist camp' in Europe and the Soviet Union, that took with it 80% of Cuba's trade and 40% of its national income. In this module you will have the opportunity to get behind the caricatures, and to develop an understanding of how the Cuban Revolution survived the Soviet collapse, of what kind of society Cuba is today, of how its politics work, and of where it might be going in the future, not least in the light of the political changes in Latin America, the retirement of Fidel Castro, and the elections of presidents Raul Castro and Barack Obama.

Objectives

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

Assessment