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ARGUMENTUM
ARGUMENTUM
Abstract
How to explain the absence of a countermovement, in Polanyi’s terms, following the financial and economic crisis of 2008? This article proposes an explanation starting from the historical decoupling between political parties and social movements, and examines some hypotheses on the reasons for this discrepancy. While the “double movement” theorized by Polanyi implied a convergence between social movements and political parties to control the institutions that were going to frame the market, this convergence is made difficult today by virtue of the conditions for intellectual autonomy within protest movements.
Keywords
Polanyi, neoliberalism, social movements, political parties, prefigurative politics.
CAMIL-ALEXANDRU PÂRVU - Associate Professor, Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest, camil.parvu@gmail.com
ARTICULI
ARTICULI
Abstract
Modern European identity is built around two types of cleavages revealed in the beginning of the XIX century: fraternity and conflict. The meanings and the different readings of these two themes of the democratic modernity provide by themselves an accurate image of the period in question. For Central and South-eastern Europe, these two indicators burst into the political scenery and in the political thought at the same period, under the significant impact of the French Revolution. This article is tracking the main paradigm changes produced in the political thought in this part of Europe, especially in the Romanian Principalities, interpreted through the lenses of civic aggregation and the creation of civil society. Individuals are more and more defined as holding a double existence, as public markers and private entities; this fresh perspective accompanies the expression of either tolerance (accompanied by an auto-critical perspective) or antagonism (of class, race, religion, civilization in a more general matter of speaking) and they are at the ground foundation of modern political system.
Keywords
democracy (theory of), individuals, civil society, toleration, modernity, conflict.
RALUCA ALEXANDRESCU, Associate Professor, Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest, raluca.alexan@gmail.com
Abstract
In December 1989, the Romanian revolution rises, and its symbol emerges: the flag with the hole. But this blank conveyed two recollections: of course, the arm of coats of the communist flag, but also the blazon of the past kingdom. Yet, it was crucial to decide how to fill in the flag. And so, two visions of the past are confronted, two golden ages: pre-communist or pre-Ceaușescu. Basically, political stakeholders at that time interpreted the hole in the flag as an opportunity for restoring the past, far more than as an invitation for a fresh start. In this way, these two years, from December 1989 to December 1991, were very unstable, with no clear symbolics for the Romanian State.
Keywords
flag, national symbols, revolution, transition.
LAURENT ROSSION, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, laurent_rossion@yahoo.com
Abstract
The article examines the evolution of grass-root movements in Africa after 2011 in the electoral context marked by the incumbent president’s plan to preserve power indefinitely. A case study on the Balai citoyen (citizen broom) movement is proposed. The article aims to identify the logic, the rhetoric, and the mobilization that this youth civil movement proposes in the context of the 2013-2014 contestation of the regime. A success story that continues also after the president’s fall, in October 2014, and translates into a mobilization that converts the revolutionary logic of the movement into the classic perspective assumed by pressure groups.
Keywords
grassroot movement, Burkina Faso, Balai Citoyen, elections, transition.
DOMNICA GOROVEI, Researcher, Center for Fundamental Policy Research, University of Bucharest, domnica.gorovei@gmail.com
VARIA
VARIA
Abstract
This article outlines the main social, political, and economic reasons that explain Moldova’s delay in its post-Soviet transition, after gaining its independence in August 1991. In comparison to the Baltic States, Republic of Moldova has had a different starting point in the “transition race”. First, the independence of the former Soviet republic benefited of a much lesser support within the Moldovan society – local population and political elites –, and on behalf of foreign states and international institutions. Moldova’s agrarian economy and its strong dependence on Russian resources and post-Soviet economic system also disadvantaged its development. To this one could add state governors’ low capacity to negotiate with foreign financial donors (mainly IMF and World Bank) in order to defend the local economic interests, but also to properly use the contracted credits. One of the main obstacles in Moldova’s development path was the low quality of state governance and the advanced level of “state capture” (i.e. interference of vested interests into state governance) and thus its limited capacity to administrate a favorable transition based on existent economic resources and assets, not on their ruins.
Keywords
Republic of Moldova, post-Soviet transition, independence, state capture, governance.
PETRU NEGURĂ, Lecturer at “Ion Creangă” State Pedagogical University in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova, Petru.Negura@gmail.com
ARMAND GOȘU, The Future of Romanian-Russian Relations in the Trump Era (pp. 569-576)
Abstract
The present article is an analysis of Romanian-Russian relations from December 1989 to now. The author’s conclusion is that Romania’s initiatives have always been in counterstep with all the other states in the region in relation to Russia. Donald Trump’s presidency, as it hints at a possible radical change in Washington’s relationship with Russia, forces Romania to rethink its bilateral relationship with Russia, depending on futur developments. The author analyzes the factors that will influence decisions made by Bucharest in relation to Moscow over the next several years.
Keywords
Romanian foreign policy, Russia, Trump, NATO, Putin, Lavrov, Russia.
ARMAND GOȘU, Associate Professor, Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest, armand.gosu@fpsub.unibuc.ro
JENS IVO ENGELS, FREDERIC MONIER, NATALIE PETITEAU, La politique vue d'en bas. Pratiques privées et débats publics, 19e-20e siècles, (actes du colloque d'Avignon, mai 2010), Armand Colin, coll. Recherches/Les coulisses du politique dans l'Europe contemporaine, t. 1, Paris, 2012; FREDERIC MONIER, OLIVIER DARD, JENS IVO ENGELS, Patronage et corruption politiques dans l'Europe contemporaine, Armand Colin, coll. Recherches/Les coulisses du politique dans l'Europe contemporaine, t. 2, Paris, 2014; OLIVIER DARD, JENS IVO ENGELS,ANDREAS FAHRMEIR, Scandales et corruption à l'époque contemporaine, Armand Colin, coll. Recherches/Les coulisses du politique dans l'Europe contemporaine, t. 3, Paris, 2014 (MARIA CHIRILOAIA) (pp. 579-582)
BRUCE BUCHAN, LISA HILL, An Intellectual History of Political Corruption, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014 (ALEXANDRA OPREA) (pp. 582-584)
PIETER M. JUDSON, The Habsburg Empire: A New History, Harvard University Press, 2016 (ANDREI DAN SORESCU) (pp. 584-585)
EDUARDO DARGENT, Technocracy and Democracy in Latin America: The Experts Running Government, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014 (ANDREI MACSUT) (pp. 585-587)
BEN HILLMAN, Patronage and Power: Local State Networks and Party-State Resilience in Rural China, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2014 (ANDREI MACSUT) (pp.588-590)
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