Designing a Humanitarian Culture: An Analysis of the Cuban Experiment

Abstract

Analyzes the Cuban government's attempt to develop the ultimate humanitarian society, to keep sight of the well-being of humanity as their ultimate goal, and to arrange cultural contingencies that generate behavior compatible with that goal. It is argued that (1) such a humanitarian society will not evolve randomly without the intervention of cultural designers and (2) natural contingencies often generate behavior incompatible with the well-being of humanity, so the development of a humanitarian society requires the design and implementation of performance-management contingencies. Also, a society geared to the well-being of humanity must not be confused with a society free of aversive control. Finally, to use money as an incentive in addition to moral incentives does not necessarily counteract the development of a humanitarian society; the important issue is the contingent relationship between performance and incentives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)