LAURENCE WHITEHEAD is Official Fellow in Politics and Acting Warden, Nuffield College, UK. BERT HOFFMAN is Senior Researcher, Institute of Latin American Studies, German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, Germany.

'This is a work of great sophistication and scholarship. The editors have brought together extraordinary talent to examine historical, political and societal issues in a way that is original and stimulating.' - Hal Klepak, Royal Military College of Canada

• Preface; C.Offe On Cuban Political Exceptionalism; L.Whitehead Cuba: From Exception to Democratization?; A.Arato How Exceptional Is the Cuban Economy?; E.Morris The Gatekeeper State: Limited Economic Reforms and Regime Survival in Cuba, 1989-2002; J.Corrales Cuba: Consensus in Retreat; H.A.Dilla Cuba's Dilemma of Simultaneity: The Link between the Political and the National Question; B.Hoffmann The Cuban-American Political Machine: Reflections on Its Origins and Perpetuation; A.Portes Rethinking Civil Society and Religion in Cuba M.C.Crahan & A.Armony The Knots of Memory: Culture, Reconciliation, and Democracy in Cuba; R.Rojas Conclusions: Cuban Exceptionalism Revisited; L.Whitehead & B.Hoffmann