Studia Politica, vol. XI, no. 2, 2011
ARGUMENTUM
CRISTIAN PREDA, Primele alegeri româneşti (The First Romanian Elections) (pp. 201-224)
Abstract
The article describes the first elections organised in the Romanian Principalities based on the Regulamente Organice (a Romanian proto-constitution), namely the legislative elections for the so-called Adunări Ordinare Obşteşti (Ordinary Public Assemblies), but also the election of Gheorghe Bibescu as head of state by the so-called Neobicinuita Obştească Adunare (Extraordinary Public Assembly) in 1842. The article analyzes the genesis of the legal provisions under Russian influence, but also the vote itself. The author reaches the conclusion that modernisation begins before the 1848 revolution.
Keywords
Elections, modernization, Romanian Principalities, 1848, political elites
ARTICULI
MANUEL GUŢAN, Constituţionalism şi import constituţional în România modernă. Proiectul de Constituţie de la 1848 al lui Mihail Kogălniceanu (Constitutionalism and Constitutional Transplant in Modern Romania. The 1848 Constitutional Project of Mihail Kogălniceanu) (pp. 227-254)
Abstract
Someone cannot speak about a constant influence of the Belgian Constitution of 1831 over the Romanian political elite. Not from 1848, at least. The most well known and prized 1848 revolutionary project – the one elaborated by Mihail Kogălniceanu, has been transplanted in a very important amount (60%) from the French Constitution of 1848. Generally speaking, it must be emphasized that the principles and the institutions of the Belgian Constitution haven’t represented a constant and overwhelming model for the 19th century’s Romanian constitutionalism. The birth of the modern Romanian constitutionalism has thus been a difficult process, almost exclusively indebted to the ideological and normative legal import. The imported model hasn’t been singular, ruther someone must think about an alternation of the French and Belgian constitutional models. This is why we are speaking about therminological vagueness, normative incoherence, incompletness of the principles and institutional hesitations.
Keywords
Mihail Kogălniceanu, Romanian constitutionalism, constitutional transplant, 1848 constitutional project
AURELIAN GIUGĂL, Arheologie electorală. Particularităţi istorico-electorale în România şi Dobrogea interbelică (1919-1937) (Electoral Archaeology. Electoral History Features in Interwar Romania and Dobrudja Period [1919-1937]) (pp. 255-273)
Abstract
In the interwar Romanian democracy, the main actor in this political mechanism around which the electoral system and the political parties were rounding was the King. He was designating a party in order to form the government, and afterward the elections organized by the cabinet were inevitably won by the political party in power. As no party was designated one after another to rule the government, the sequence in power was simply and efficiently ensured. Winning the elections for each party in power was closed related to the voters dedicated to the government, meaning those who were giving their votes to the leading power. And this way, the interwar electoral puzzle was completed. The cohort of voters willing to vote for the government was influenced by many indicators such as cultural (literate) and economic ones, so that the electoral behavior differences between regions like Oltenia and Banat were significant, taking into consideration the economic gaps. Therefore, the electoral comparison between Romania and Dobrudja in the interwar period makes sense.
Keywords
Electoral system, interwar Romania, elections, electoral comparison, Dobrudja
VLAD BRĂTULEANU, Anarhismul în România (Anarchism in Romania) (pp. 274-285)
Abstract
This article explores the emergence and development of anarchist ideas and groups in Romania in the period 1880-1945. Western revolutionary trends such as socialism had permeated, by the 1880s, the Romanian cultural-political space. Socialism has been studied extensively and it only seems reasonable to extend the scope of previous research to other revolutionary movements or ideologies of the same period that have not benefitted from much or any scholar attention. To this date, researchers in the fields of history or political science have not provided any comprehensive study on Romanian anarchism and, consequently, the aim of the following endeavor is to offer a first sketch of the history of Romanian anarchism. This article is based on information drawn from primary sources such as radical journals of the epoch discussed, documents belonging to state institutions charged with surveillance of radical political activity, as well as memoirs; it is also based on works by western scholars that have focused on European anarchism.
Keywords
Anarchism, Romania, revolutionary movements, anarcho-individualism, socialism
RALUCA MĂRGĂRIT, Ipostaze ale întreprinderii socialiste în anii ’80. Studiu de caz: Combinatul Siderurgic Călăraşi (Faces of the Socialist Enterprise in the 80’s. Case Study: The Călăraşi Integrated Iron and Steel Works) (pp. 286-308)
Abstract
In this paper, we analyze the role and functions of the socialist enterprise, a place in which the interaction between power and society is strongly emphasized. Focusing on the last decade of communist rule, we have chosen as a case study an enterprise created in the late 70’s: The Călăraşi Integrated Iron and Steel Works. We were interested in how the Romanian Communist Party was organized inside the enterprise and the duties of party organizations. Recruiting new party members, mobilizing workers were only two of the party organizations tasks within enterprises. These topics were, in many occasions, the focus points of the Party organizations reports. An important part of this study was devoted to activities organized within the socialist enterprise. Socialist emulation, cultural and artistic activities, sports occupied a central place in everyday life of the industrial workers. Especially in the last decade of communist domination, any event is a cause for celebration, this phenomenon being in contrast to the austerity imposed by the regime. In communist Romania, the socialist enterprise was, above all, one of the most important places of propaganda, domination and control.
Keywords
Communism, socialist enterprise, workers, socialist emulation, cultural and artistic activities
ALINA STURZU, The Presidentialization of the Romanian Political System. An Interplay between Structures and Contingencies (pp. 309-327)
Abstract
The peculiarities of post-communist Romania have stirred inquiries regarding the delimitation of the governmental system, the separation of powers and the relations between these. The present analysis addresses the phenomenon labeled the ”presidentialization of politics”, which designates the adoption of a presidential modus operandi without an actual constitutional option for presidentialism. Since the concept revolves around the highly debated concentration of power in the hands of leaders, the potential presidentialization of the Romanian political system would be investigated by scrutinizing the increased leadership autonomy in three arenas: the executive, the party and the electoral process. Basically, this paper represents a theoretical extension of the presidentialization thesis, aiming at concluding on the phenomenon’s existence and functioning in Romania as encouraged by a series of structural and contingent factors, including the communist legacies and the dysfunctions of the democratic transition.
Keywords
Presidentialization, government, political leader, elections, voting behaviour, post-communism, Romanian politics
ŞTEFAN IONESCU, Perpetrators, Bystanders, and Rescuers. Popular Attitudes Towards Ottoman Christians During the Armenian Genocide (pp. 328-344)
Abstract
This article explores the popular attitudes of Ottoman Muslims (mainly Turks and Kurds) and foreign residents (German, US, British, so on) towards their Christian (mainly Armenian and Syriac) friends, neighbours, and countrymen during the tragic events that occurred in WWI Ottoman Empire, known in Western scholarship as the Armenian genocide. Overall, the attitudes of Ottoman Muslims and foreign residents towards local Christians fit into the perpetrators/ bystanders/rescuers paradigm and varied from active persecution to indifference, opportunism, and sometimes help and rescue.
Keywords
Armenian genocide, popular attitudes, perpetrators, bystanders, rescuers
JUSTINE LACROIX, KALYPSO NICOLAÏDIS (eds.), European Stories. Intellectual Debates in Europe in National Contexts, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010 (ALEXANDRA IONESCU), pp. 347-351
VICTOR NEUMANN, Neam, popor sau naţiune? Despre identitățile politice europene, Editura Curtea Veche, Bucureşti, 2005 (DAN-ALEXANDRU CHIŢĂ), pp. 352-356
CONSTANTIN IORDACHI, Charisma, Politics and Violence: The Legion of the ”Archangel Michael” in Inter-war Romania, Trondheim Studies on East European Cultures and Societies, No. 15, Trondheim, 2004 (ANDREI-MIHNEA RAHĂU), pp. 357-362
CONSTANTIN IORDACHI (ed.), Comparative Fascist Studies: New Perspectives, Routledge, USA & Canada, 2010 (MONICA ANDRIESCU), pp. 363-365
ROGER GRIFFIN, The Nature of Fascism, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2002 (VLAD CIOBANU), pp. 365-368
VLADIMIR SOLONARI, Purifying the Nation: Population Exchange and Ethnic Cleansing in Nazi-Allied Romania, Woodrow Wilson Centre Press, Washington D.C, 2010 (MARA ŞERBĂNESCU), pp. 369-373
PHILLIP BLOND, Red Tory. How the Left and Right Have Broken Britain and How We Can Fix It, Faber and Faber Limited, London, 2010 (CĂTĂLIN RAIU), pp. 373-377
GIDEON RACHMAN, Zero-sum World. Politics, Power and Prosperity after the Crash, Atlantic books, London, 2011 (NUBIA NIETO), pp. 377-379
ALEXANDRU GUSSI, La Roumanie face à son passé communiste. Mémoires et cultures politiques, L’Harmattan, Coll. «Logiques Sociales», Paris, 2011 (FANNY SBARAGLIA), pp. 380-384