Cuba

[Bradford DeLong]

>Unambiguous dismissal isn't much better than unambiguous embrace. 
>The Cuban revolution can claim some real achievements in education, 
>health, and the provision of basic goods - their social stats are 
>closer to those of the U.S. than those of the Dominican Republic...
>Doug

Except that in 1959, IIRC, Cuba's level of development was much 
closer to that of Costa Rica than to the Dominican Republic.

It's possible that the right way to characterize Castro is that he's 
taken a country with the relative economic productivity of Costa Rica 
and turned it into a country with the relative economic productivity 
of the Dominican Republic--but has managed to do this without losing 
relative standing in HDI.

Brad DeLong