The Community Development as Part of the General Concept of Development in Cuba

2. Potentialities of the Economic Dimension of the Community Development in Cuba
3. Conclusions
4. Referencias bibliográficas

The Potentiality of Its Economic Dimension.

Introduction

The modern idea of progress is based on the rationalist thesis of perfectibility the human kind. Since the 17th Century, this thesis advocated for an unavoidable perfection of man, however, this faith on reason which is originally transcendent and critical has been decreased in the 19th Century by a "scientific" and "positive" reason. This "scientific" and "positive" reason is based on "the events" with the consequent apologetic adaptation to a reality in which bourgeoisie is hegemonic. The faith on God which has been firstly substituted by the faith on reason, then by the faith on science and finally on technology, also reduces in a very singular and dangerous way the ideas of progress and development to the improvement of material aspects of human existence, even when only a scanty minority have access to them.

During a long time the relation of development predominated just as a result of the economic improvement, but the experiences, frustrations and analyses made possible to understand that not only the improvement of the economic activity was enough to solve the problems of development. As a result of this emerged the idea that social problems could not be separated from economic aspects since there was an interrelation between them. Due to the practical problems and the search for explanations that impeded to obtain results form economic policies in order to achieve development, it was possible to give a new approach to this concept.

It corresponds in that way to the challenges of a reality that does not allow the fragmentation of the main objects for study which have been imposed by special disciplines. Human life and the ecosystems included multiple aspects that are essentially interrelated and independent. In short, there are multidimensional and contradictory totalities in which there is a dialectic interrelation between the parts, inside them, and between them and the whole.

In Cuba there have been made lots of efforts to provide agile structures in order to improve the leadership on development. However, there still being lots of obstacles that limit it and waste the potentialities of the development of productive forces in our country.

Some notes about the evolution of the notion of development as a multidimensional phenomena.

After the Second World War, with the emergence of United States as world power, the spread of a united communist movement and the disintegration of the European colonial empires in Asia, Africa and Latin America were created the conditions for the appearance of a more scientifically systematized concept of development. In this moment emerged different international organizations such as United Nations and some other world institutions held to the 1944 Bretton Woods" Agreement such as International Monetary Found, World Bank, FAO, UNESCO and CEPAL in the Latin-American case.

At the same time are developed some position inside the "Theories for Development", for example: "Theories of Growth and Modernization", "Structural Theories", "Neo-Marxist Theories of Underdevelopment and Dependence" and "Alternative Theories".

From the decade of 1970 on the notion of development changed. Its main objective was not anymore the accumulation of capital but the satisfaction of basic needs of men. There are lots of conditionings that provoke changes that are given on the theorization about development. Some of the most important conditionings are the reappearance in theoretical and practical terms of the economic liberalism with its version of Neoliberalism and the appearance of non governmental organizations (NGO) which act on the problematic of underdeveloped countries.

After the decade of 1980 and the social failures accumulated from the Latin-American"s import-substitution strategies, the beginning of the Socialism"s disintegration, the emergence of Asian models proposing new perspectives of development, the international organizations such as the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank start to leader the planning of underdeveloped economies that is the same as the globalization of the capitalist system and the rising of social costs. It is very important to add to this panorama the environmental problems which were the main cause of appearance of new theorizations about of development.

This situation provokes a radical overturn of the precedent conceptions of development. The alternative development is aimed to satisfy human needs either material or immaterial. First of all to satisfy the basic needs of those who are dominated and exploited and then assuring the humanization of every human being satisfying their needs of expression, creativity, equality and living conditions allowing them to understand and dominate their own destinies.

The strategy of development of this conception is guided by the goal to satisfy the basic needs of the poorest segment of people establishing a balance on the distribution of the incomes.

Once the alternative theory of development has reemerged in the decade of 1990 another important multidimensional and humanist perspective for the explanation of development is the one that has been generalized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) which proposes a new concept of development, the human development.