Dr. Jorge I. Dominguez spent nearly five decades as a Harvard professor, while also serving the university in roles such as director for the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and chair of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. Since his retirement in 2018, Dr. Jorge I. Dominguez has concentrated on his writing and publishing activities. Books to which he has contributed include Social Policies and Decentralization in Cuba: Change in the Context of 21st-Century Latin America.

Social Policies and Decentralization in Cuba was published by the Harvard University Press as part of the Series on Latin American Studies, a collaboration with members of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. It offers a comprehensive analysis of Cuba’s ongoing economic issues.

The book is particularly concerned with Cuba’s transition from a social policy pioneer in Latin America to a nation that had to take policy notes from surrounding nations for the first time. Cuba’s history as a Latin hub for social change dates back to the Cuban Revolution of 1959. Over the years, government leaders spearheaded a variety of social initiatives, ranging from health care policies to matters of higher education.

However, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 resulted in significant financial strain on Cuba’s many social initiatives. In recent decades, the country has experienced a spike in poverty rates and other metrics indicative of widespread inequality. The policies themselves have come under fire, with Cuban citizens struggling to gain access to higher education or find reliable health care.

Social Policies and Decentralization in Cuba examines the nation’s resistance to privatization, measured against the country’s growing acceptance of decentralization and non-state cooperatives.