Party membership, social ties and upward mobility in Cuba

Several studies from transitional economies focus on the role of political credentials and personal networks in favouring upward mobility. Nevertheless, both topics remained empirically rather unexplored in Cuba. The present article quantitatively explores these topics, thereby trying to fill these gaps. Survey data were collected in 2010–11 in Havana. The sample is composed of workers (N = 269) and includes information about their social networks. Research findings from this study suggest that (1) political credentials are not a prerequisite for reaching highly remunerated jobs (on the contrary, according to my results, Party members are less frequently found in highly remunerative positions than non-members) and (2) Cubans commonly turn to personal ties, especially if they are strong, in order to successfully complete a job search. Both results are consistent with research findings from transitional economies at a comparable kind of market penetration and with first findings from a social mobility study carried out by the Cuban Centro de Investigaciones Psicológicas y Sociológicas (CIPS 2009).