Cuba and Poland: an Outline of Comparative Analysis of Totalitarian Regimes

In: Przegląd strategiczny: Strategic review, Heft 15, S. 333-350

Abstract

The aim of the article is to find the similarities and differences between Poland and Cuba by comparing them totalitarian regimes. The research problem consisting in determining the importance of exogenous and endogenous factors favoring the regime or disintegrate it. In this case, the method of desk research is appropriate. The comparison was made using the same and operationalized criteria (hegemony or domination of the party-state apparatus, the intensity of political gnosis, and the scope and extent political mobilization) based on Juan Linz's modified concept of totalitarianism. At the beginning of the 1960s, in Cuba, the uncivil society had a hegemonic position. In the 21st century, its status changed from hegemonic to dominant, closely linked with the totalitarian party-state apparatus. The political regime slowly evolved from strong to weak totalitarianism. In post-war Poland, the political regime evolved from strong to weak totalitarianism, to become authoritarian after 1980 behind the façade of an inoperable party-state apparatus, and in 1989 it collapsed. In both cases, exogenous factors were of much less importance than endogenous ones.