Studia Politica, vol. VI, no. 2, 2006

ARGUMENTUM

LAVINIA STAN, Justice and Transitional Justice in Poland, pp. 257-284

Abstract

Observers have argued that the window of opportunity allowing for the adoption of transitional justice methods in Eastern Europe had closed by the mid-1990s, both because by then the public had lost interest in the topic and because former communist officials and secret political officers retained their political clout and were using it to block an honest reassessment of the recent past. However, it was only toward the end of the decade that Poland adopted lustration, opened secret archives and investigated a number of communist-era atrocities, proving that, if there is political will, justice delayed might not amount to justice denied. This article examines three methods post-communist Poland has employed in order to come to terms with the communist past – lustration, secret file access and court proceedings – and offers four different explanatory factors that, when taken together, can elucidate the country’s reluctance to pursue the politics of memory more resolutely.

ARTICULI

IRINA NICOLETA IONESCU, L’opposition parlementaire en Roumanie postcommuniste: 1990-2004, pp. 287-317

Abstract

The Parliamentary Opposition in Post-Communist Romania: 1990-2004

To what extent the parliamentary activity of the Romanian political parties reflects the division line between “power” and “opposition”, as it is defined by the alliances that shape the composition of the government and of its parliamentary support? According to data analysis, the most straightforward answer to this question should be: the parliamentary activity of the political parties reflects only moderately the division line between “power” and “opposition”. There is a clear and frequent support given to the government and to its policies, by the parties that do not belong to the parliamentary majority. The division line between the two camps is crossed from both sides, but, in most of the cases, the opposition parties are the ones to cross it. Nevertheless, the data gathered do not offer enough arguments either to completely change the image of the “power” and “opposition” camps, as it was publicly perceived during the whole period, or to nominate certain parties that have constantly transgressed the division line between the two camps.

ALEXANDRA IONASCU, Instabilité du personnel gouvernemental et continuité décisionnelle en Roumanie postcommuniste, pp. 319-356

Abstract

Instability of Governmental Personnel and Continuity in the Decision-Making Process in Post-Communist Romania

The study focuses on the functioning of the post-communist Romanian cabinets from the perspective of the behavior of high-level government actors: ministers and state secretaries. The study underlines the empowerment of the executive decision on vertical axis, as well as the role of the institutional logic in the formation of cohesion networks among political actors. The insertion of governmental actors in these networks, on the basis of a coincidence of the institutional trajectories, lessens the instability of the governmental personnel and ensures a continuity of the decision-making process forged on the principle of the accumulation of executive experience. The study thus employs a two-fold approach. In a first instance, the author investigates personnel reshuffles, as a measure of personnel instability; the study also performs a quantitative analysis on the reproduction of political actors in executive functions. The second part of the article scrutinizes the effects generated by the personnel’s dynamics on the decision-making procedures and the strategies adopted in order to lessen the discontinuities produced by the governmental actors’ fluidity.

CATERINA PREDA, The Europeanization of Romanian Political Parties: The Ideological Level, pp. 357-402

Abstract

This study attempts to explain the structuring and the articulation of the Romanian political landscape after more than a decade of democracy and in the specific context of the negotiations for the European integration. More specifically, the investigation bears on the manner in which the principal Romanian political parties integrate in their discourse the “European coordinate” and the modality whereby these visions are articulated inside the party system. Therefore the analysis encloses a twofold approach: the systemic level and the party level. The seeming consensus in the auto-definition as European parties (vocationally) is striking. This leads to a closer examination of the parties’ ideological manifestos, the speeches and discourses of the different political formations, in order to try to decipher the options of each one, so as to perceive the fine nuances that individualize each party in relation to another. The parties analyzed here are: the Democrat Party (PD), the National Christian Peasant Party (PNTCD), the Social Democrat Party (PSD), the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Union of Democrat Magyars of Romania (RDMSZ / UDMR) and the Great Romania Party (PRM). The exploration follows the party development essentially in the period 1996-2004, given the increasing importance gained by the European issue after the 1996 elections (the alternation in power and the victory of the pro-European coalition) and even more importantly, after the publication by the European Commission in 1997 of the Agenda 2000.

RAZVAN VICTOR PANTELIMON, « Partidele au murit, traiasca partidele! » Aparitia « partidului-cartel » în România, pp. 403-448

Abstract

“The Parties are Dead, Long Live the Parties!” The Emergence of « Cartel Party » in Romania

This article pretends to check the pertinence of concepts that have been developed to explain changes in the Western party systems to the Romanian case. The analysis focuses on the concept of “cartel party” and the emergence of such political objects in the Romanian public space. The Democratic Party, chosen here as a case study, illustrates well the hypothesis that, in recent years, Romania has passed from a model of mass parties to one of catch-all parties and finally to one of cartel parties. Insisting that the concept of “cartel party” can be understood only by keeping in mind that the whole party system is subject to the same Cartesian logic, the author concentrates his attention on the evolution of the Democratic Party between the two electoral moments of 2000 and 2004, examining in detail the modalities for establishing the lists of candidates, as well as the discussion of internal reforms and organization. A significant portion of the article is dedicated to the political migration of members from the Democratic Party, a frequent practice in the Romanian political system.

DRAGOS DRAGOMAN, Equality, Trust and Tolerance: How Sense of Equality Affects Social Tolerance in Romania, pp. 449-466

Abstract

The noticeably high social and ethnic intolerance in Romania may have not only historical or cultural explanations, but also structural explanations. This research paper settles on social frustration as a predictor of various types of intolerance. Social frustration may be caused by perceived social inequities and inequalities, and by discontent with the current standards of everyday life. Whereas social frustration appears to be a predictor for the general social, ethnic and religious intolerance, and specific intolerance against ethnic Hungarians, it is not counterpoised by other positive factors, as education. It is up to the state institutions to balance inequities and inequalities, in order to reduce social frustration. A major difficulty, however, is that people do not trust the state institutions, as these have proved largely unsuccessful at fighting corruption, one major source of perceived inequity. Pervasive corruption undermines democratic legitimacy and economic growth, affects social trust, and fuels social frustration. In turn, social frustration, social distrust, and poor economic living standards feed authoritarian attitudes and undermine tolerance, in a continuous vicious cycle that is still very hard to break in Romania.

RECENSIONES

CARMEN POPESCU, Le style national roumain. Construire une nation à travers l’architecture 1881-1945, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, Simetria, coll. « Art & Société », Bucuresti, 2004, 373 pp. (FLORAN BAYLE), pp. 469-471

STEPHANE COURTOIS (sous la direction de), Le jour se lève. L’héritage du totalitarisme en Europe 1953-2005, Éditions du Rocher, coll. « Démocratie ou Totalitarisme », Monaco, 2006, 493 pp. (ALEXANDRA PETRESCU), pp. 471-484

CORINNE BOUILLOT, PAUL PASTEUR (éditeurs), Femmes, féminismes et socialismes dans l’espace germanophone après 1945, Éditions Belin, coll. « Europes Centrales », Paris, 2005, 239 pp. (ALEXANDRA PETRESCU), pp.484-492

BERENGÈRE MARQUES-PEREIRA, PETRA MEIER (éditeurs), Genre et politique en Belgique et en francophonie, Academia Bruylant, coll. « Science Politique », Louvain-La-Neuve, 2005, 193 pp. (ALEXANDRA PETRESCU), pp. 492-497.

SONIA DAYAN-HERZBRUN, Femmes et politique au Moyen-Orient, L’Harmattan, coll. « Bibliothèque du féminisme », Paris, 2005, 157 pp. (ALEXANDRA PETRESCU), pp. 497-503

GIOVANNI SARTORI, Homo videns. Imbecilizarea prin televiziune si postgândirea, traducere de MIHAI ELIN, Editura Humanitas, Bucuresti, 2005, 172 pp. (ADELA NISTOR), pp. 503-505