Cuba’s Communist Party would thrive under democracy, but only if it gives up power soon

Cuba has been under communist rule since Fidel Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista in 1959. After many years of international isolation and a trade embargo begun in the 1960s, President Obama last year ‘normalised’ relations with the country, creating potential for an eventual transition to democracy. Here, James Loxton argues that the Cuban Communist Party would stand a good chance of thriving in a hypothetical democratic future as an ‘authoritarian successor party’ – but that this likelihood decreases the longer the regime clings to authoritarian control