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“Maybe Tomorrow I'll Turn Capitalist”: Cuentapropismo in a Workers' State
Author(s) -
Phillips Emma F.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
law and society review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.867
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1540-5893
pISSN - 0023-9216
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5893.2007.00300.x
Subject(s) - capitalism , citizenship , ideology , sociology , framing (construction) , communism , state capitalism , transition (genetics) , state (computer science) , political economy , political science , law , politics , structural engineering , engineering , algorithm , computer science , biochemistry , chemistry , gene
In 1993, the Cuban government significantly expanded the scope of legal self‐employment on the island. The change has not been uncontroversial, and cuentapropistas have frequently been held up, both in Cuba and in the United States, as the symbol of Cuba's transition to a free‐market economy. In framing cuentapropistas as the vanguards of capitalism, observers have adopted a concept of “transition” which is both rigidly ideological and teleological. This article argues that by employing a sociolegal approach toward cuentapropismo —examining close‐up not only the Cuban government's regulation of self‐employment, but also how the operation of law is mediated through cuentapropistas' own self‐perceptions—we can develop a richer and more complex understanding of transitional periods. Rather than conceptualizing “transition” as a straight line from communism to capitalism, a sociolegal analysis draws attention to the complex relationship between law, identity, and work in the renegotiation of citizenship, and the constitutive role that evolving conceptions of citizenship may have for the shape and character of a transitional period.