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Map of Europe |
CIAO DATE: 11/03
Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2003
Foreword (PDF, 6 pages, 151.6 KB)
Roundtable - Reinventing Social Sciences
Stiinta politica in tarile candidate la UE (PDF, 22 pages, 236 KB) by Hans Dieter Klingemann, Ewa Kulesza and Annette Legutke
The paper draws on a report on the state of the art in East European political science based on country reports. It serves as a source for those interested in the degree of development and sophistication of the political science in EU accession countries, but stands also as a scientific contribution in its own right. The authors found a correlation between the degree of democratization and the degree of political science's institutionalization in a given country. Candidate countries improved the political science teaching and research, but dealing with the communist legacy proved a cumbersome task still needing decades for completion. There is considerable variation within the pool of countries surveyed. Those which had the opportunity to develop even a minor political science nucleus in the communist regime are doing far better presently. The solutions suggested to bridge the gap between the two Europes are the mobility of academics and students, higher autonomy of the Universities and the wider use of new communication technologies.
Romanian History-Writing and the Third Envelope (PDF, 9 pages, 215.4 KB) by Wim van Meurs
Due to the subservience to the previous regime, many professional historians were considered untrustworthy and discredited as interpreters of past and present in the former eastern communist countries. Their evolution after glasnost and perestroika contained some important steps. First, they challenged the communist political taboos under glasnost' and deconstructed the communist political myths and historical synthesis. Second, they restituted the national precommunist history as well as the popularization of national traditions and heroes. Third, in most countries, the mid-1990s witnessed first attempts to counter the dominant trend of national history by re-integrating the communist past as an integral part rather than a historical aberration. In Romania some scholars turned politicians and the others focused on national democratic development in place, before communism took over. The recommendation is for "professionalism and openness".
Facing the Past—A Historian's Tale (PDF, 4 pages, 213.5 KB) by Neagu Djuvara
Neagu Djuvara is a professional diplomat, a historian of South-Eastern Europe and an opinion leader. He left Romania shortly before the advent of Communism, and returned after 1989 as a senior scholar, who spent most of his career years in the West. His intervention in this symposium is rooted in his own experience. Djuvara claims that political factors and residual Communist attitudes can obstruct the natural development of history as a critical and objective science.
The Romanian Historiography in the 1990s (PDF, 29 pages, 342 KB) by Bogdan Murgescu
The quantity and quality of Romanian historians work improved seriously after the fall of communism. Altough the new generation of historians, historians that borrowed the know-how from the West, have to face many obstacles, the battle is not lost already. The battle between those who want to revive the "grand-narrative" from communism and those who are trying to deconstruct some unfounded myths is still on the scene. Ideological constraints and political active involvement in sustaining the "grand-narrative" are serious obstacles for those trying to promote new methodological frameworks and debates. It seems that the state still holds the power to determine the official writers of Romanian history by encouraging a certain number of chosen historians to write a treaty under the aegis of Romanian Academy. Whatsoever, the deconstructivist generation managed to survive and their work to be appreciated by a serious number of intellectuals. Foreign grants are permitting nominal research and each historian can follow its own academic choice.
Observatii asupra sociologiei romanesti din perioada de tranzitie (PDF, 30 pages, 335 KB) by Maria Larionescu
Prior to 1945 Romania had a well-developed sociological school, well related to Western Europe and enjoying a good reputation in Romania. Among the many endeavors of this school the four-volumes Romanian Encyclopedia commissioned by the Royal Foundation remains the main source of data for pre-Communist Romania. During early Communist years sociologists had to choose between collaborating with the Communist regime and accepting Marxism-Leninism or facing the loss of their jobs and even freedom. The year 1989 brought along the rebirth of Romanian sociology after many years of constraints and ideological obstacles. A comprehensive image of the status of sociology in transition requires an examination also of the recent history of the discipline. This comprehensive report with an updated bibliography fills a void for the student of Romania or East European sociology.
PolSci Papers
Revisiting Fatalistic Political Cultures (PDF, 34 pages, 322.1 KB) by Alina Mungiu-Pippidi
The transition in East European countries generated many theoretical problems, especially regarding political culture. It is as difficult to establish where the east European political culture is rooted as to describe where those societies are heading to. The article is focused on Romanian case, examining Romanian political culture's late parting from Communism, its 'alleged' rural character, the problems of corruption and political trust, trying to separate 'hard' legacies such as development (structural constraints) from 'soft' causes—socialization, media consuming and to determine to what extent the culture and the history can affect the present evolution of a country. Two historical 'structural' legacies were proved to matter in this analysis: underdevelopment (the ratio rural/urban) and the depth of penetration by the Communist regime of the Romanian society. The 'soft constraints' are formal institutions which can be changed (such as a poor electoral law), informal institutions and opinions which run counter to democracy. The article wrap up some conclusions of interest to political culture change and democratization, defining political culture of the transition as a mix of residual and recent attitudes, inherited formal institutions and continuous internalization of new norms. The past, even affecting the evolution of the country, is not a fatality, the import of institutions being possible and those who doubt about it should seek the causes of institutional failure in the area of their implementation, not in the "culture".
The Changing Status of Protest Participation (PDF, 27 pages, 307.8 KB) by Cristina Nicolescu
One of the main evolutions entailed by the fall of the communist regimes in Central and South- Eastern Europe is the raise of a functional civil society aimed at influencing and holding the new political leadership accountable. The focus of this paper is on the citizen participation as a mean of interaction with the political system, and especially on the changing boundary between conventional and unconventional participation and on providing arguments in favour of separating the protest participation from the classical unconventional typology. I use two theoretical approaches, one comparative analysis of the various definitions and typologies of citizen participation and a second following the social changes theories that influenced the criteria of distinguishing between the participation forms: the social and cognitive mobilization processes, the postmodernization and postmaterialism theories and the mobilization strategies of social actors. My analysis is exploring the main characteristics of citizen participation in Romania as reflected in the types of associations and organizations the citizens adhere to, the activities they chose to develop within these social groups, the effective implication of the citizens in solving various problems and the perceived sense of efficacy attached to several ways of influencing the political system. The data source is the "Civil Society Development on the Black Sea: Social Involvement in the Republic of Moldova and Romania" project developed as part of the Black and Caspian Sea Collaborative Research Program. The main findings of my research support the separation of protest participation forms from the unconventional ways of participation and highlight the citizen participation changes drawn by the latest social change processes.
The Political Economy of Corruption in Transition and the Pressures of Globalization (PDF, 11 pages, 403.7 KB) by Adrian Savin
The East European countries' transition towards market economy and democratic governance seems blocked. In this context, the paper argues that integration with the EU and NATO might offer a second chance for turning the transition process successful. From all causes of this delayed economic and democratic development, I chose to analyse the one essential for Romania: obstruction of free and fare access to resources and services by a narrow group of transition winners. These individuals have used the advantage of past positions in the communist bureaucracy to, currently, constitute an informal, but efficient, structure that monopolizes resources, prevents free access to the economic system, and, therefore, nurtures corruption. Moreover, the still existent state monopoly enables corruption turning it into a force that is blocking development of free markets. The paper argues that integration with the European Union and NATO may offer a solution for eradicating corruption and for increasing transparency in the system. This is possible for two reasons. First, the two above-mentioned institutions enjoy great legitimacy in Romania and can therefore act as levers for triggering effective reforms. Second, the conditionality of adopting the Acquis Communautaire—a body of laws that can fight corruption—might lay a solid basis for successful internal reforms that would create sustainable and transparent structures able spur economic and democratic development.
The Cargo Cult of Democracy in Romania (PDF, 34 pages, 382.4 KB) by Sorin Ionita
It is possible that the airplane of good governance and prosperity will eventually land in Romania too? This paper starts from a metaphor that points the effects of a self-illusionate population. The author asks himself if, in the actuall state of development of Romanian economy and politics, there may be some chances left. In a country which dessilude itself with a kind self-perception, the reality may be a different odd. The deficit of governance given by a strange byzanthin manner of managing politics, the problems of a model which can be encountered in the underdeveloped countries, namely missing policies model, the administrative problems created by the second level communist inherited public employees and, first of all, the "amoral habits" of the ruling elites, all these are measures for a weak managed country. Thereby, the role of the civil society and especially of the local think-thanks dealing with the transitional problems is crucial. There are some conditions in order that local think-thanks can do their job properly: independence, "one-direction orientation", better communication strategies and a coherent foreign donors help.
PolSci Book Reviews
About Holocaust and Communism (PDF, 3 pages, 247.9 KB) reviewed by Emanuel Răuţă
Romania, Frontier Country of Europe (PDF, 3 pages, 208.2 KB) reviewed by Silviu Hariton
Nucs¸oara s¸i Scornices¸ti. Mecanisme de aservire a t¸a˘ranului român (PDF, 4 pages, 258 KB) reviewed by Sorin Ionita