ABSTRACT
In Cuba and Mexico, the left’s historical, statist paradigm took on added weight as a result of the nationalist revolutions that constitute the key defining moments of their twentieth-century life. In the first years following the 1959 seizure of state power, the Cuban revolution was not dominated by any one ideological current. The discourse and strategy of the Cuban revolution thereafter were increasingly confined within a relatively more humane, more participatory, and therefore more popular version of the Soviet model. Associated with both global economic restructuring and the rise of neoliberalism is the collapse of the Soviet bloc. The neoliberal offensive proved to be astonishingly successful and further undermined left confidence in the Latin American state’s capacity to shepherd economic development and social transformation. Neoliberalism remains within the tradition of liberalism in its emphasis on free enterprise, the market, and individual initiative and responsibility.
