Suchergebnisse

In this article, I will try to open a new discussion on the intersection between Gramsci and Foucault. First of all I will try to identify if these two authors could be used together in order to analyze the power relations in a society, by discussing some of the most important contributions on this subject. I will identify the points of intersection and the points of tension between the two authors, in order to find the best way to combine the theories of hegemony and governmentality. The main goal of the article is to find if the two theories can be compatible and how they could work together in order to obtain a better understanding of the power relations. Gramsci could offer a better tool to analyze the institutional context, the role of the social classes and the way in which the interest of the classes are build. By using the concept of governmentality one can analyze the way in which the techniques of power are working and which rationalities contribute to the change of human behavior.

The author tackles the controversial problem of the relation between theory and ideology in Karl Marx's and Friedrich Engels' political writings. The article is structured into two main parts: the first one is focused on Marx's vision of a revolutionary intellectual as a base for the development of both theory and ideology. The second one deals with Marx's posterity, as it was established by the contribution of Friedrich Engels.

The paper explores the merits of Protagoras' view of politics as a possible intellectual source of the post-communist theory of democracy. Unbeknownst to themselves, Romanian politicians and political scientist tend to understand the function of politics in the footsteps of Plato and Lenin, as an art, or science of leadership. Interested mainly in the effectiveness of government, they give no significant heed to the issue of rights and liberties. The great discourse of Protagoras of Abdera could supply, in a normative way, the conceptual tools for a different approach to politics, as a pedagogical rhetoric of legal and political equality.

The international academic community is currently exploring the development of the intelligence studies domain as a social science project. The current position paper argues for a project to connect, in content terms, the Romanian political science with the domain of intelligence studies. It takes into account the international and local context, and presents some of the benefits to be generated by the intersection of these two domains.

The article surveys the various stances taken in interwar Romania towards the contemporary international - particularly French - trends of legal and political theory meant at counteracting the shortcomings manifested by the legislative patterns of Napoleonic provenance when confronted with the exigencies of expanding associational life and the need of growing state intervention in the sphere of the relations between economic factors. The crisscrossing visions of federalist syndicalism and, respectively, juridical socialism - exposed most conspicuously by the legal philosophers Léon Duguit and Emmanuel Lévy - are shown to receive various evaluations in the local milieu, from the part of authors connected with the leading journal of the Romanian Social Institute and otherwise (and always by reference to the predicament of social reform in the national space). It is highlighted that the impact of the ideas involved in the debate was broader and more diffuse than one could assume when taking into consideration only the outspoken - and partly obsolete - objectives and premises of the argumentations in question.

The purpose of this research paper is to assess the causes of the territorial distribution of the votes in Romanian local elections held in 2004. Using an aggregate level statistical analysis, I explore three competing theories. The territorial distribution of votes might be first function of geographical localization, people from Transylvania voting against the ruling party and largely favoring the opposition. Counties supporting the opposition are generally the most developed, least rural and wealthiest counties, but in the same time a number of these counties are located in Transylvania. All the same, people may support effective and accountable politicians in office and sanction the others. Testing the three hypotheses, I find that the economic voting has no empirical evidence. The only significant factor unraveled is the counties' location in Transylvania. This factor continues to be significant even when the relationships are controlled with different local development measures, unraveling a regional voting pattern in Romania.

This article explores a number of the themes that late researcher and professor Alexandru Duţu treated in his the articles, book reviews and interviews published in the Romanian cultural and opinion press between 1990 and 1998 (Arc. Litere. Arte & Meşteşuguri, Cotidianul. Litere Arte. Idei, Dilema, Secolul XX, Transilvania, Viaţa Românească etc.). As some of these themes are covered also in his scientific works, the study contributes thus to an inventory of the historical premises for Duţu's ideas on the formal and contradictory duality of the modern world, including the duality of "organic" and "organized solidarities", as well as the Janus-like nature of liberty or of liberties. Furthermore, it investigates his view on the reconstitution within the orthodox space of the Romanian cultural and political tradition, "ravaged" by the rationalism of the 19th century modernization efforts. This "aggression" led to the emergence of a new image of tradition, in folkloric tones, that has stubbornly endured also throughout the protochronism preached by the communist regime. Finally, the article approaches the sensitive theme of human condition during communism and the Duţu's self- professed "inner exile", as well as on his reactions as a citizen of the polis. All these stem from this long scholarly history of dual worlds, particularly the condition of the individual for more than three centuries: that of a relentless search for the lost harmony between the "world within" and the "world outside"), as well as from the internalization of his personal development.

This study aims to answer the question whether Christian Orthodoxy can inspire political movements. In so doing we start from the political theories of modernity where the link between Christianity and democracy is central. Our result sounds unexpected: interaction between Orthodoxy and democracy seems to not have a perspective. It is too late for it since most political movements in post-communism do not have the religious identity of their members as criterion. The situation was not different before. As an example the effort of the orthodox theologians and laymen in Romania before the outbreak of the Second World War is quoted here. Almost without an exception all focused and restricted their interest on the question of the nation. Therein we see the principal reason for the above postulated perspective of an orthodox political doctrine until now. On the European level the situation looks also no better. Even the parties, which attribute themselves the Christian values, have at present large difficulties to convey their message. It remains only to hope that the political actors rediscover the social and actively support the Christian ethics in the public area. Only so can democracy be regarded as one of the most important binding forces also under the Christians.

The Church-State relationships in EU Member States are in a process of a radical transformation. This is the result of a rapid political integration and also of the major transformations of the modernity. Religion is still part of the European public space even if, according to modernity premises, it should be only a private matter. According to Max Weber and other authors, secularization diminishes the role of the religion in society. However, these theories are being contested in recent years, due to the interpretation of statistical data and to the emergence of fundamentalist religious movements spreading around the world. Consequently, secularization is a tendency and not an "iron law". As regards the current role of the religion, Silvio Ferrari developed the theory according to which there is a common European model. This model does not exist yet, but certainly we live in an era defined by the continuous searching of such a model. There is no European identity without common values. Some of these values, like toleration, do have a profound religious foundation. European integration is based on the action of different actors, including interest groups located in Brussels. The Churches and the religious organizations are also part of this category of actors and they try to be part of a process by which a common space for consultation will emerge.