Studia Politica, vol. XIV, no. 4, 2014

ARGUMENTUM

ARMAND GOŞU, Ghiță Ionescu on the BBC (pp. 439-478)

Abstract

Ghiță Ionescu, Romanian journalist and diplomat, arrived in London in March 1947. In the 1930’s he had published several articles in leftist press. His communist simpathies were crushed by the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, on 23 August 1939, Ghiță Ionescu started hating with equal passion both Fascism and Communism. In October 1949, Ghiță Ionescu started teaching the Romanian language and history at the War Office as part of courses held by the prestigious School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) with London University. The director of the SSEES was probably the one who recommended Ghiță Ionescu for the European section of the BBC in 1950. Ionescu submitted an analysis of Cominform policies, recorded on magnetic tape on 8 June 1950 and broadcast on 15 June after the 19:00 news bulletin. Shortly after, the Romanian section of the BBC asked him for a longer version of that analysis. The text was broadcast by the Romanian section of the BBC on the evening of 22 June 1950. In late August 1950, he decided to submit a proposal to BBC management to turn “Letter from London” into a regular feature to be broadcast on Wednesday night every other week. The head of the Romanian section, Doreen Berry, told him on 12 September that he could continue the feature until the end of the year. Ghiță Ionescu was asked to focus “more on the international scene and less on special Romanian events”. For five years, starting in 1950, “The Letter from London” was Ghiță Ionescu's signature feature.

Keywords

Ghiță Ionescu, Romania, BBC, King Michael I, Doreen Berry, Anti-Communist Propaganda, broadcasting.

ARTICULI

RUXANDRA IVAN, L’ambiguïté du limes. Quel avenir de la Politique Européenne de Voisinage ? (Ambiguity at the limes. What Future for the European Neighborhood Policy?) (pp. 471-481)

Abstract

The approach of the European Union towards several regions that might be considered as “gates” to the rest of the world, such as North Africa and the Middle East or the Black Sea area, is becoming more and more ambiguous. This is certainly a paradox, since the actual conditions of world politics would seem to require, on the contrary, a more integrated strategy, and one that is more oriented towards clearly defined objectives. This article proposes a comparative reading of the different European initiatives linked to the European Neighborhood Policy addressed to the two above-mentioned regions: the Barcelona Process, EuroMed and the Union for the Mediterranenan, on the one hand, and the Black Sea Synergy and the Eastern Partnership, on the other hand. The content of these cooperations, as well as their objectives and the State and other institutional actors that contribute to them will be examined. The ambiguous nature and the lack of global coherence of these initiatives can be explained through the competition among member States but also among the European institutions in their attempts to assume a leadership position in these policies. Another explanation is the lack of a properly political global strategy of the EU, that should gather the consensus of all member States and link the technical and economic aspects of cooperation to a wider vision of the role and the objectives of the EU in the world.

Keywords

EU, European Neighborhood Policy (ENP), EuroMed, Eastern Partnership (EaP).

ILEANA RACHERU, Proiecte pentru un parteneriat imposibil. România în dezbaterile de politică externădin Republica Moldova (Forging an Impossible Partnership: The Romania Debate in Republic of Moldova’s Foreign Policy) (pp. 483-496)    

Abstract

Based on extensive fieldwork, this study provides an empirical and theoretical analysis of the debates on Republic of Moldova’s foreign policy towards Romania. The author argues that Moldovan political actors involved in foreign policy debates are split into three main groups: Russophiles Europeanisers, Westernizers Romanophiles and Pragmatic Moderates. The study identifies two major themes of debate: a symbolic perspective emphasizing the ethnical origins of the Moldovans and the reunification issue and a pragmatic approach aiming at forging an economic partnership with Romania in order to facilitate Moldova’s European integration.

Keywords

Republic of Moldova, Romania, foreign policy, debates, European integration, reunification.

SIMEON MITROPOLITSKI, Balkan Politicians, Mostly Immune to the Influence of EU Integration (497-514)

Abstract

Are the post-communist politicians changing their political ideologies as a result of European Union (EU) integration? Are they more likely to accept democratic norms and procedures as their countries are moving toward EU membership? The existing literature provides mutually excluding answers. This paper aims to settle down this dispute by bringing up ideological evolution of some key political decision makers in two post-communist countries, Bulgaria and Macedonia. These cases represent countries on different stages of EU integration. Findings were triangulated through in-depth interviews with citizens in both countries that took place between 2009 and 2011. These findings suggest that most politicians are relatively immune to the influence of EU integration in the sense of identity change. Some of them may move even more toward nationally based identity, looking at the EU only as a tool for serving their national political agenda. However, there are politicians who have also developed a new complex European identity allowing them to look at the political world differently, not only accepting democratic norms, but also acting simultaneously on different levels, national and supranational.   

Keywords

European integration, Balkans, democratization.  

GIORGIAN-IONUŢ GUŢOIU, Realinieri partizane româneşti în context geografic. O explorare a geografiei procesului de substituţie între partide în Transilvania, 1996-2008 (pp. 515-538)

Abstract

The 2000 Romanian General Elections marked the disappearance of the Romanian Democratic Convention (CDR), until then a remarkable fixture within the party system. The Convention's dissolution enabled other parties to emerge and fill in the void. This article explores these replacements at their geographical level. The historical region of Transylvania, once a stronghold for the Convention, became a favorable place for the Justice and Truth Alliance (DA) in 2004 and for the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) in 2008. Using Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA), we examine the geography of party replacement in six Transylvanian counties. ESDA indicates that the party replacement process within the Romanian context has a definite and clear geographical dimension. Our study shows the need to place electoral changes in a geographic framework for a better understanding of Romanian party politics.

Keywords

party replacement, Romania, post-communism, Romanian Democratic Convention (CDR), Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA).   

LIGIA LIVADĂ-CADESCHI, Medicină și politică în periodicul Călăuza sanitară și igienică, București, 1899-1907 (pp. 539-557)   

Abstract

Drawing upon the first Romanian journal devoted to the broad promotion of hygiene and health education – The Sanitary and Hygiene Handbook – the article investigates the interaction between politics and medicine, politicians and doctors in modern Romania. Published uninterruptedly between 1899-1907 and considered “essential for the rural sanitary service”, the journal shows the evolution and predicaments of the position of the medical profession: as public servants, the physicians were agents of the various territorial sanitary administrations; however, by virtue of their medical expertise and field experience, they were also harsh critics of local and central authorities, claiming a special status in both the design of health policies and their implementation on the ground. This dual and conflictive nature of the medical profession added to the increasing polarisation of the medical profession and of the sanitary staff as a result of the salient “proletarization” of its members in the rural areas, as opposed to the elitist character of the corporation in the capital, well represented among MPs. At the beginning of the 20th century, the debates hosted by the journal testify for the transformation of hygiene and medicine from a doctor-to-patient relation to a generally acknowledged policy sector.

Keywords

Romania, hygiene, public health, health policies, sanitary administration.