Studia Politica, vol. VIII, no. 4, 2008

ARGUMENTUM

BOGDANA PETRICĂ, La fatigue de l’élargissement de l’Union européenne, pp. 781-789

Keywords

EU enlargement, Lisbon Treaty, candidate countries, enlargement policy, differentiation

Abstract

The Fatigue of EU Enlargement

The fatigue of EU enlargement became a constant of the current political debates. There are many factors that tend to account for a break in the enlargement process such as the reintroduction of the criteria of EU capacity absorption and the supplementary political requirement for the Western Balkans that are making the accessions conditions difficult. One should not forget that the EU member states have also the possibility to oppose their veto to any further accession. Moreover, with the difficulties of ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and the recent financial crisis the EU is not ready to pursue the enlargement process. The candidate states hope to join the EU as soon as possible but the Union is in need of a deep institutional reform before any other enlargement will occur. However, if the EU continues to keep the candidate countries apart, it is not impossible to witness another fatigue – the one of the permanent reform in the aspirant countries.


ARTICULI

MIHAI CHIPER, Memoria baricadelor. Anul 1848 în context comparativ, pp. 793-833

Keywords

1848 revolution, commemorations, national memory, political rituals, Europe.

Abstract

The Memory of Barricades. 1848 in A Comparative Context

The paper offers a comparative perspective at a European level of the memories of the 1848 revolutions, unveiling the discontinuities and fractures of the national traditions. Some nations or states although deeply damaged by these events are more likely to forget the 1848: France, Austria, Poland; other countries managed to transform it in a point of reference for their political and even social modernity: Hungary, Italy and Germany. The different types of practice and commemoration of the memory of the revolution were strongly linked to the political culture each managed to develop. A common factor for such countries that underwent revolutionary events is that of socially remembrance influenced by political interest that results in different forms of commemorative practices taking place. Political figures tried to mobilize the memories of 1848, commemorating heroes, using funeral rituals, unveiling statues, attending processions and political debates that started to crystallize around these anniversaries. With respect to societies, the group didn’t share the same version of the past; the reason was that their political, social and national goals proved to be contradictory. Some political currents, especially the liberals were celebrating the parliamentary fight in 1848, others emphasized the fight against the foreign influence (Central and Eastern Europe), whereas socialists built up upon the connotation of the dead on barricades.


OANA-VALENTINA SUCIU, Metamorfozele cenzurii româneşti sau Tertium Non Datur, pp. 835-847

Keywords

censorship, freedom of thought, publications, intellectuals, dissidence

Abstract

The Metamorphoses of Romanian Censorship or Tertium Non Datur

The article is an attempt to draw a brief historical comparison between censorship in inter-war and in communist Romania respectively. Paradoxically, there are not too many genuine scientific studies on censorship, in a country well-known for its repressive approach against culture during its recent and not so recent history. The analysis uses the works of the novelist and historian of religions, Mircea Eliade, as an illustrative case study among other prior to 1989 examples, especially in order to prove the much harsher nature of the communist regime.


CĂTĂLINA MIHALACHE, Antireformă şi reformă în şcoală, la căderea regimului comunist, pp. 849-868

Keywords

communist regime, public discourse, reform, school crisis, ”polythecnic” education

Abstract

Reformation and Anti-reformation of the educational system at the End of the Communist Regime

The present study investigates the major problems and challenges faced by the Romanian educational system during the last years of Nicolae Ceausescu's regime. My main focus is on the so-called ”polytechnic” education as a mean to reform and improve the system, and the debates it generated starting with the late 1970s. Consequently, the paper also examines the evolution of the debate and the top-down and bottom-up projects and initiatives to reform the educational system during the first decade following the collapse of the communist regime in Romania in December 1989. The aim is to present the clashing visions of different actors over the idea of reform and the urge to implement it, nonetheless to reveal the long term deadlock generated by this situation within the Romanian educational system.


CATERINA PREDA, «Enclaves autoritaires» artistiques au Chili? Art et politique dans la démocratie retrouvée, pp. 869-888

Keywords

art, politics, democratic consolidation, artistic memory

Abstract

Artistic ”Authoritarian Enclaves” in Chile. Art and Politics in the Rediscovered Democracy

After more than a decade of dictatorship, Chilean arts were confronted, in 1990, to a democratic framework: the common enemy was gone; or not? In this sense, my investigation seeks to answer two interdependent questions. Which path did the Chilean state follow so as to grant an artistic institutional framework after authoritarianism? How did Chilean artists perceive this transformation, and how did they regard (report themselves to) the past in their works? Besides this double intention, this article seeks additionally, as its title indicates, to verify the persistence or not of ”artistic authoritarian enclaves”. I will verify how this formula introduced by Manuel Antonio Garretón gains a different sense if we think about it from the point of view of the relation between art and politics.


AITANA RADU, The Rise of Islamic Fundamentalism and the Birth of Hamas, pp. 889-905

Keywords

Islamic Fundamentalism, Hamas, Islamic Revival, jihad

Abstract

This short study analyses the different faces of political Islam in an attempt to shatter the common myths associated with this phenomenon. The final goal of the article was to offer a detailed definition for the concept of Islamism that would allow policy-makers to expand their understanding of Islamist organizations, like Hamas. To achieve my aim I have encompassed here a brief incursion into the world of Islamic political thought, using as a methodological framework the works of two important Muslim thinkers: Sayyd Qutb and Muhammad Abduh. Hamas’ Islamist character has been another focus of this study, as I have been interested in identifying the possible factors that may lead this type of Islamist resistance movements to evolve into legitimate political parties.


CAMIL-ALEXANDRU PÂRVU, Neorepublicanism and Its Critics. Deliberation, Rhetoric and Republican Freedom, pp. 907-920

Keywords

republicanism, deliberative democracy, rhetoric, political participation, liberalism.

Abstract

This article attempts to clarify some of the recent debates concerning the conceptual and normative autonomy of a contemporary neorepublican political theory. Critics of the political-theoretical extension of the ”republican revival” usually tend to challenge such autonomy, by claiming that neorepublicanism ultimately dissolves either into varieties of political liberalism, or into deliberative democracy. In addressing this latter charge, I argue that despite apparent affinities, neorepublicanism and recent accounts on deliberative democracy are not only rooted in separate political traditions, but they also construct the requirements of participation and deliberation in significantly different ways.


CLAUDIA GILIA, Teoria statului de drept, C.H. Beck, Bucureşti, 2008 (RADU CARP), pp. 923-926

CHANTAL DELSOL, La nature du populisme ou les figures de l’idiot, Les Éditions Ovadia, Coll. «Chemins de pensée», Paris, 2008 (SERGIU MIŞCOIU), pp. 926-928

GIORGIO AGAMBEN, Homo Sacer. Puterea suverană şi viaţa nudă (Homo Sacer, I), trad. A. Cistelecan, IDEA design & print, Cluj, 2006 (ALEXANDRA SINDREŞTEAN), pp. 928-932

ROBERT GELLATELY, Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler. The Age of Social Catastrophe, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2007 (DIANA ONCIOIU), pp. 932-934

TONY JUDT, Postwar – A History of Europe since 1945, Penguin Press, 2005 (GENŢIANA TRANCĂ), pp. 934-936

STÉPHANE COURTOIS (sous la dir. de), Dictionnaire du communisme, Éditions Larousse, Col. «À Présent», Paris, 2007 (IOANA PAVERMAN), pp. 936-939

THOMAS FAIST, PETER KIVISTO (eds.), Dual Citizenship in Global Perspective. From Unitary to Multiple Citizenship, Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire and New York, 2007 (ANA-MARIA TANAŞOCA), pp. 939-941

ABDULLAHI AHMED AN-NA’IM, Islam and the Secular State. Negotiating the Future of the Shari’a, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, 2008 (AITANA RADU), pp. 942-944

MARK MACKINNON, The New Cold War. Revolutions, Rigged Elections and Pipeline Politics in the Former Soviet Union, Carroll&Graf Publishers New York, 2007 (ILEANA RACHERU), pp. 944-947