Cuban and Danish Agriculture, The Rochdale Principles, and the Renovation of Socialism

Abstract

In 2011, the Guidelines for Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution announced Cuba's intentions to decentralize state power and economic decision-making, shift toward a mixed economy, and channel up to one-third of state workers to worker-owned cooperative enterprises and the small business sector. As socialist theory requires movement away from state-centered and toward mixed economies, I examine Danish and Cuban cooperative agricultural movements, evaluating them with respect to the Rochdale Principles of cooperative production, to identify appropriate economic production forms for democratic, participatory socialism within the context of globalization. This study argues first that, to maximize efficiency, cooperative production processes must remain entirely in the hands of cooperative federations. Second, a culture of economic democracy is reinforced by the democratic principles of cooperative work. Third, an income tax would function as a more appropriate way for the Cuban state to obtain a share of returns from agricultural cooperatives than the current production quota system, to avoid disrupting cooperative incentive structures. Fourth, cooperatives can perform well in any industry, at all levels of technological development, and should be considered a dominant model for socialism. Finally, although the Rochdale Principles are based on economic and social justice, these principles and their practical application must be continually refined through further experimentation and research.