ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Cuba has hitherto maintained a political system that combines a strong state, a relatively consolidated authoritarian regime and an economic system that is mainly state-controlled, with only temporary and overall sparse elements of market economy. The Cuban revolution alone was frustrating for a variety of social science theories simply by contradicting their assumptions. Cuba has remained a frustrating case for many research areas because it is an example of how the unique combination of various elements of organization, legitimation and exercise of political rule results in a kind of 'hybrid' autocracy that is able to secure its own survival longer than might be expected. The latter became particularly evident after the breakdown of the state socialist camp after 1989. From the very beginning, the revolutionary regime developed a strong legitimation ideology, which in the course of decades could be reinterpreted, modified, and varied with respect to some of its elements.
