Studia Politica, vol. IX, no. 4, 2009

ARGUMENTUM

JEAN-MICHEL DE WAELE, L’Europe Centrale et Orientale: terroir de la recherche en science politique, pp. 593-601

Keywords

Central and Eastern Europe, political science, totalitarianism, postcommunism, political parties

Abstract

The paper is a transcription of the speech given by the author in acceptance of the title of doctor honoris causa of the University of Bucharest. The discourse is at the same time a personal statement of commitment to the study of Central and Eastern European politics and society, and an appraisal of the problématique of the researches conducted in and on the area. The assertion is that, despite a relative decline of the intellectual interest in the region of mainstream political science, Central and Eastern Europe might still provide valuable insights into the core issue of the discipline: the nature and predicament of democracy, the production of political regimes, how do cleavages appear and how they can be observed, how does politics affect the make-up of societies.

DANIEL BARBU, Les questions De Waele, pp. 603-606

Keywords

political science, communism, totalitarianism, postcommunism, political parties

Abstract

The paper is a transcription of the response given to the discourse of acceptance of the title of doctor honoris causa of the University of Bucharest by Jean-Michel De Waele. The laudatio lays emphasis on the intellectual mainlines of the scholarly work Professor De Waele devoted to the study of Central and Eastern European politics after the fall of communism, and in particular on the issue of the emergence of political parties. These mainlines are summarized by what might be called the ”De Waele” questions, that is by the strategies the Belgian political scientist used in order to question the fabric of postcommunist polities, politics and policies.

ARTICULI

STELU ŞERBAN, Migration and Development Models in Dobroudja, 1880-1913. Contribution to the Study of the Topic, pp. 609-620

Keywords

Dobroudja, political development, land reform, migration, citizenship

Abstract

The modernization inside each European country has been generated socio-economic and cultural tensions, which increased by the sudden constraint of the mass politics. The main cause for this state is the acceptance of the homogenous nation model as a fundamental landmark of modernization. In this respect, the Romania’s province of Dobroudja represents an extreme revealer of the problems and conflicts of this modernizing program. It is significant that at the Berlin Congress in 1878 the Romania’s government preferred to integrate Dobroudja, a province where the Romanian population was outnumbered by the Slavs and Moslems, instead areas with a majority Romanian-speaking population, like Timok Valley. This solution had ample economic consequences, but fueled too the political conflicts between central government and local politics. The theme of the article, beyond its strictly historic character, is important as it sends us to research a vaster problem, the long term changing of the South-Eastern European regions on Danube Valley

ARMIN HEINEN, Die Krise der rumänischen Monarchie von 1940, die persönliche Bewährung der Königsfamilie und das Scheitern der Neufundierung monarchischer Herrschaft in den Jahren des Holocaust, pp. 621-627

Keywords

monarchy, war, Holocaust, Antonescu, stalinization

Abstract

The Crisis of the Romanian Monarchy in the 1940s. The Personal Proving of the Royal Family and the Failure of Re-institutionalizing the Monarchic Rule during the Years of the Holocaust

In August 1944 the Queen Mother and the young Romanian Monarch had gained personal strength because of their moral behaviour during the time of the Second World War and the Romanian Holocaust. However, at the same time, the monarchy as an institution had lost its vigour. It is often argued by scholars that with Carol II leaving the country by force, the Romanian monarchy was not anymore without alternatives. The Queen Mother and the young Monarch were praised because of their ”virtues” but not as representatives of an important, strong, deeply rooted in the culture of the country institution.

ANDREI MIROIU, Oil: The Doom of Communist Romania?, pp. 629-646

Keywords

oil policy; oil crisis; communism; Romania; Ceausescu

Abstract

This paper achieves two things: first, it establishes the existence of a certain pattern of analysis, which I will call an academic canon, of analyzing the problems caused by the oil crises of the 1970’s on the economy of Communist Romania. The canon seems to hold that a series of economic decisions taken in the 1960’s and 70’s by the communist leadership concerning the vast expansion of the petroleum industry led to huge problems after the enormous increases in the price of oil at the end of the 1970’s, which led to the virtual destruction of the economy and the huge deprivations of the 1980’s, thus helping to explain the popular rejection of the socialist regime. Secondly, it analyzes what the Romanian communist leadership thought of the oil industry and what was their general strategy related to it. The general conclusion of the paper is that a deeper research on the party documents and economic policies leads to a wider understanding not only of the worldview of the Romanian communist leaders, but also to nuances when describing the economic causes of political and social change.

MIREL BĂNICĂ, L’Orthodoxie rurale et la modernité. Un essai monographique, pp. 647-672

Keywords

sociologic monograph, Orthodoxy and Modernity, religious fact, post-communism, Romania

Abstract

The text represents the essential of a monograph research that was carried out in an orthodox parish of the district of Brãila from August to December 2009. We tried to witness the evolution of mentalities and religious attitudes caused by the rapid changes that occurred in Romanian society after 1990, by studying the daily religious activity of the parish. The parish itself represents a model of adaptation: its activities are carried out on the ground floor of a residential block in the premises of a former bakery. On a nearby patch of land, the new church has been under construction since 2001. We intended to discover to what extent the building of that new church structures the community within the framework of the existing parish, as well as the current strategies for the financing of such a building.

AITANA BOGDAN, Hamas and Palestinian Politics, pp. 673-690

Keywords

Islamist organizations, Hamas, Palestinian Territories, elections, democratization

Abstract

This article explores the advantages and disadvantages for Arab democratization of the political integration of Islamist movements. Because of the vastness of the subject I will focus on only one such organization, namely the Palestinian Hamas. In the course of the paper I will analyze Hamas’ origins, structure and ideology and reasons for seeking political inclusion. The paper concludes with an in-depth evaluation of Hamas’ actions once it managed to acquire political power, namely their overall impact on the peace process and on Palestinian democratization.

MARIUS I. LAZĂR, The Salafism in Europe. Between Hijra and Jihad, pp. 691-707

Keywords

Salafism, Europe, Islam, Jihad, Al-Qaida

Abstract

Salafism is a current within the Sunni Islam, which interprets Islamic history and dogmas with special emphasis on doctrinary, spiritual and behavioural purity. Its central tenet is that there is a radical breach between the authentic Islam of the first decades of Muslim history and the subsequent developments of the cultural and religious Islamic tradition, the latter being blamed for having allowed the corruption of the divine message during encounters with foreign and non-Muslim cultures. Contemporary Salafism generally promotes a conservative vision of Islam in the manner of Wahhabism and encourages the development of a universal type of Muslim, with no specific cultural allegiances, whose identity is based on the strict observance of a clearly spelled out theological and behavioural catechism. In addition to this pietistic Salafism – non-political in principle – a militant Salafism has emerged in recent years, which proclaims the superiority of Islam over the Western world and the need for a return to the original Islamic teachings, as well as envisaging an apocalyptic vision of a global battle between good and evil, fought by two generic entities called the Islam and the West. This sublimated imagery and vision of war moves beyond mere rhetoric and encompasses more than a substitute ideology (possibly meant to compensate for the failure of the traditional nationalisms in many Muslim countries). Effectively involved in the Afghan war, most of the radical movements thereby developed have added to their ideological position a substantial military and organizational expertise. Following the retreat of the Soviet army from Afghanistan, many Jihadi movements – later to acquire media visibility due to their association with al-Qaida – steer their strategic interests towards the West, in particular Europe and the United States. The increasingly large Muslim population settled here facilitates activities of recruitment, mobilization and implementation of violent action taken in the name of the globalizing belligerent goals envisaged by Islamist ideologists.

MONICA VLAD, Does American Indian Law Reflect Indian Values? A Study on Native American Identity, pp. 709-748

Keywords

Indian tribe, reservation, sovereignty, colonization, justice

Abstract

This study explores the legal history of the Indian civilizations of North America. It focuses on the unsual link between the jurisprudence of the United States Supreme Court and the extermination politics practiced by the federal government. Strange enough, these have been some of the limits of the most admired democracy of the world. The analysis explains the racist solution imposed by Justice Marshall, whose legal genius created the concept of ”guardship” against the Native Americans. Different periods of time, concentrated in their respective ”legal solution” have resulted in the disappearance of most of the North American Indian civilizations. One is surprised to notice the eurocentric vision imposed on these cultures, whose concepts are so very different from ours. Notions like ”tribe”, ”savages”, ”state of pupilage” speak for themselves in order to demonstrate the arguments used for the destruction of a fascinating world and for the justification of the colonization process of the Americas.

RECENSIONES

PIERRE MANENT, Raţiunea naţiunilor. Reflecţii asupra democraţiei în Europa, Romanian transl. and preface by CRISTIAN PREDA, Editura Nemira, Bucureşti, 2007 (DAN ALEXANDRU CHIŢĂ), pp. 751-754

A. JAMES GREGOR, The Faces of Janus: Marxism and Fascism in the Twentieth Century, New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 2000 (MIHAI CHIOVEANU), pp. 754-756

BEN SHEPHARD, After Daybreak – The Liberation of Belsen, 1945, Pimlico, London, 2006 (LETIŢIA POP), pp. 756-760

CHARLES PATTERSON, Un éternel Treblinka, French transl. by Dominique Letellier, Calmann-Lévy, Paris, 2008 (ANA-MARIA TANAŞOCA), pp. 760-763

JEFF GOODWIN, JAMES M. JASPER (eds.), The Social Movements Reader: Cases and Concepts, 2nd ed., Wiley-Blackwell, UK, 2009 (MONICA ANDRIESCU), pp. 763-766

BEN LEWIS, Hammer and Tickle – A History of Communism Told Through Communist Jokes, Orion, London, 2009 (ION ENACHE), pp. 767-770

JEAN ROCHET, Cinci ani în fruntea DST: Misiunea imposibilă, foreword by GEORGE MAIOR, Romanian transl. by Răzvan Ventura, Editura Fundaţiei Culturale Române, Bucureşti, 2008 (FLORIN DIACONU), pp. 770-772

GEORGE CRISTIAN MAIOR, Noul aliat. Regândirea politicii de apărare a României la începutul secolului XXI, RAO International Publishing Company, Bucureşti, 2009 (FLORIN DIACONU), pp. 772-774

LAURA SITARU, Gândirea politică arabă: Concepte-cheie între tradiţie şi inovaţie, Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 2009 (FLORIN DIACONU), pp. 774-776

RUXANDRA IVAN, La politique étrangère roumaine (1990-2006), Éditions de L'Université de Bruxelles, coll. ”Science Politique”, Bruxelles, 2009 (ŞTEFAN TURCU), pp. 777-780