The Political Science Interpretivist

Introduction: The Approach Helen Yaffe has written an informed and insightful study of Cuba’s current political and economic situation. That is, from the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s to the time of publication in 2020. Her approach includes drawing from scores of interviews she conducted, mostly between 2010 and 2019. (279) She interviewed Cuban officials, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens living in Cuba so that she could understand and explain how these Cubans understood their own political and economic conditions. She also marshals a great deal of quantitative data which re-enforces and further illuminates how these Cubans saw themselves and their conditions. Political scientists will note that Yaffe doesn’t organize her study around the concept of the political system. In part, this is because her emphasis is more on the economic development of Cuba, its challenges, successes, and persistent needs, rather than the policy making pro