Cuba’s Bureaucracy Isn’t Broken—It’s Working Exactly as Intended
From Cuba to the Gulf: How modern authoritarian states weaponize bureaucracy to maintain control
Modern history offers a clear warning: governments that rely on control rather than consent, that make subjugation the organizing principle of statecraft, are inherently unstable and ultimately doomed to fail. This isn’t mere ideology; it’s a lesson carved into the ruins of failed regimes around the world.
Yet, the seductive myth of managing tyranny through technocratic reform persists—in Cuba, and at times, even in our halls of power. But one cannot bureaucratize a nation out of authoritarianism and a command economy in a piecemeal way. The transformation of a totalitarian police state requires more than policy tweaks: it demands foundational change, which, regrettably, is rarely peaceful and never painless.
A recent Columbia Law Cuba Capacity Building Project policy essay on Cuba’s sobrerregulación (overregulation) and carga administrativa (administrative burden) offers a well-documented, academically grounded account of the Cuban state’s suffocating regulatory maze. It outlines how excessive bureaucracy imposes both psychological and material costs on citizens, especially the most vulnerable. For that, it deserves credit.
Follow this link to read “Overregulation and Administrative Burden in the Cuban Public Administration” by Tamarys L. Bahamonde. An economist trained at the University of Havana, Bahamonde is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy and Public Administration at the University of Delaware. The article appears in Horizonte Cubano, the online publication of the Cuba Capacity Building Project at Columbia Law School. The platform fosters academic reflection and debate on contemporary Cuba and its ongoing transformation.
Bahamonde rightly emphasizes that administrative burdens are not merely technical failings—they shape how citizens experience their government. Over time, they erode trust, stifle initiative, and create fertile ground for corruption and informal economies. These burdens fall hardest on those least able to navigate a system intentionally designed to be opaque and paralyzing.
In short, Bahamonde captures the symptoms of a deeper pathology. And while these issues are not unique to Cuba—after all, even in America, we are regulated quite literally until death and beyond—the comparison should not be mistaken for equivalence.
In the United States, laws such as the Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule, IRS estate tax disclosures, and state death certificate procedures impose requirements on families after a death. These regulations may be frustrating, but they are at least grounded in transparency, individual rights, and accountability. They can be challenged. They can be changed. They are debated in public.
Most Americans probably have no idea that the federal government needs over 11,000 words to regulate your funeral—and, frankly, it’s something of a racket. Yes, we live in a country where your last transaction might be federally regulated down to the font size on a price sheet. The difference is that, unlike in Cuba, we can push back, reform, or repeal these rules. However, it serves as a reminder of how deeply bureaucracy can infiltrate, even in a democratic republic.
In Cuba, regulation is not a mechanism of service. It is an instrument of control. The Cuban bureaucracy is not an accidental byproduct of socialist planning or institutional inefficiency. It is the ideological architecture of repression.
From the first revolutionary decrees that seized private property to today’s avalanche of executive resolutions and unpublished rules, the Cuban government has perfected the use of legal ambiguity as a political tool. Sobrerregulación is not a flaw in the system—it is the system. It discourages initiative, limits access, and reminds citizens that even the most basic transaction occurs only at the discretion of the state.
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