Suchergebnisse

This article discusses the case of Ion Grigorescu, and of his ambiguous relationship with the communist regime, which he registered through a form of "documentary realism". Through his "realgrams" Grigorescu documented real life experiences in an innovatory approach to the majority of Romanian artists of the time using photographs of his everyday environment, and being inspired by his social and political context. Grigorescu is thus an artist committed to the public space and assuming a critical stance without it being discursive, pedant or moralizing. The approach of this study is descriptive, based on the artists' artworks and self-descriptions, and seeking to situate Grigorescu's approach in the context of the communist regime and its transformation after 1990 into a democratic regime. The conclusions show that Grigorescu's artworks are anti-system, criticizing any establishment, no matter in which regime he finds himself. His contestation is specific to a committed artist that chooses to express his freedom of expression beyond his own studio.

The historical-demographic approach of family in their relationship with society with different transitory societal or community typologies is a complex initiative that needs a methodological approach including peripheral elements as well, besides a deep analysis on the central defining elements. The historical demography and other sciences, such as anthropology or history of mentalities, by directly or collaterally approaching the family, often make references to the three important moments in the individual's life: birth, marriage and death.
We have used several categories of documentary sources in our survey. We have the information on the population in north-western Romania due to the ecclesiastic notes (in the parish records or reports and the bishopric notes); on the other hand, we have the information provided by the Austrian and Austro-Hungarian state. Methodologically, the first phase of our research consisted of the preparation of the documents investigation strategy, as expected. In our research, we consider the fact that we approach the area of ecclesiastic entities, as most of our sources for the 19th century belong to the church. This imposes a stress on the confession and its importance. Besides confession, an aspect that we wish to underline is ethnicity. In our investigation on the family the main stress was laid on the survey and analysis of different marital behaviours. Through different constraints and determinisms entailed by the possibility to choose, marriage is highly relevant in establishing behavioural laws (if they ever existed!?). The dimension of the marital market corroborated with the ethno-confessional and socio-professional realities provided the particularities of the marital phenomenon.
Referring to the lay and ecclesiastic legal framework, we support the need for a flexible approach of the topic. The logic of this foray consists of the visualisation of the legal framework – rigid and impregnated with an obvious moralising discourse – on the one hand, and the image of conformism and means of adaptation of the individual, on the other hand.
The starting point of the family is marriage. If we approach marriage from the point of view of the confessional and ethnic conditioning, we get to an analysis of the mixed marriages phenomenon. In fact, the analysis of the ethno-confessional and socio-professional determinisms and of other types of community or individual conditions can be easily carried out in the case of mixed marriages. The central point of our research is the analysis of Romanians', Hungarians', and Germans' marital behaviours without ignoring the image of this phenomenon at other populations in the area.
An analysis on birth and death rate, or natural growth, is able to provide information on the impact demographic phenomena had upon family. A world where death rate was very high and where family would react through a high birth rate was undoubtedly influenced by the demographic flow. Irrespective of the society typology, divorce, concubinage, and illegitimacy (no matter their way of manifestation) were forms of social deviance leading to the dilution of family image and precepts. We do not discuss here a dilution of the traditional precepts on the family, as someone might misunderstand; it is an erosion of the idea of family in general. The "family" began to acquire other forms than the "official" ones. From the relationship of the family with the community were born mentalities, roles and social statuses. The family, its formation, the relationships between man, woman, children and relatives, as well as the relationships with the rest of the community were filtered by the "village gossip". The need for a strong solidarity that was necessary in the unfriendly conditions at the time compelled the individuals to accept the cohabitation with other members of the family (including the extended one) and with the rest of the community.

The article is an attempt to draw a brief historical comparison between censorship in interwar and in communist Romania respectively. Paradoxically, there are not too many genuine scientific studies on censorship, in a country well-known for its repressive approach against culture during its recent and not so recent history. The analysis uses the works of the novelist and historian of religions, Mircea Eliade, as an illustrative case study among other prior to 1989 examples, especially in order to prove the much harsher nature of the communist regime.

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 Europeanizers, 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.

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 positive, unifying ideological resources of liberal and progressive Islamic interpretations deserve more than ever to be exploited in the contemporary socio-political context. Their conceptual tools, principles and theses could solve the conflictual cleavage, politically manipulated, between Islam and Western modernity, without repudiating the references to an Islamic paradigm. Therefore, liberal and progressive Islamic understandings could avoid the recent superficial oscillation between two ideological -artificially constructed- extremes, namely either confining the discussions to the secular, colonialist or postcolonialist perspectives, or promoting the defensive opportunist neotraditionalist Islamic approaches, specific to the nationalist movements of the last century so-called Islamic revival. Liberal Islam does not fully adopt all liberal theses and does not obediently imitate Western philosophy. Liberal Islamic understandings are defined by the opposition against teocracy and by supporting the democracy. Women, minorities and non-Muslims' rights in Muslim-majority countries, freedom of thought and trust in human progress, are other essential tenets that are fundamented on contemporary understandings of the major Islamic sources. Trying to correct some excesses that the liberal Muslims were accused of, but maintaining the reformist tendencies, progressive Muslims' approach is centered on a "multiple critiqueˮ ‒ a simultaneous critique of the diverse discourses and communities in which Muslims are situated. Not only the authoritarian constructions of literalist, puritanist Muslims, the violation of human rights, freedom of expression and of religion, the oppression of women in some Muslim countries are condemned and deconstructed, but also some political, economic, intellectual hegemonic Western aspects of modernity. In Romania these contemporary tendencies of interpreting Islam are not yet represented at a community level.

One of the essential objectives of this work is to change the optical approach of the local power phenomenon, opting for the approach of the territorial organization of local power from the perspective of the realities of the contemporary world. Within the thematic framework of the paper, I have pursued that the territorial organization of local power to be treated from the perspective of political and administrative sciences, referring to the Moldovan realities, but also to the influences of the integration in the European space. In order to solve the theoretical and practical problems related to the efficient territorial organization of the public power, I have used the paradigm of the territorial organization of the public power as the basis of the phenomenon investigation. The key idea of the paradigm is that the phenomenon of public power in the contemporary democratic state must be tackled not only in relation to the state but more broadly in the aspect of the existence of both the public power of the people and the existence and functioning of the local collectivities' public power as a power that has the same social nature but is different as form and content from the state one. These communities have their own public power, based on two essential elements: the local population and the local electoral system through which its representative bodies (decision-making and executive) are elected. The chapters of the papers imply complex researches regarding the territorial organization of the local power, in the idea that they would allow to identify a model of territorial organization of the local power in terms of the interests and needs of local collectivities in the Republic of Moldova. The final objective of the paper was to develop a theoretical vision of the reform of the territorial organization system of local power in accordance with the new realities and that would meet the political, social and economic challenges facing the Republic of Moldova. Reforming the territorial organization of the local public power on the basis of the recommendations made in the paper will help to overcome the negative tendencies that occur in the processes taking place in the society. Searching solutions to solve or identifying possible ways to resolve a problem does not necessarily mean finding an undoubtedly mean to solve the problem or a definite answer to the existing issue. In many cases, scientific researches does not put the end point in a scientific dispute or in a contradictory approach of a phenomenon, they only develop it, broaden the knowledge space and update it, providing research space to other researchers concerned about that issues and opportunities of choice and documentation for political decision-makers.

The reforming of the local power territorial organization in the Republic of Moldova is an obvious fact. The need for change is known at the government and civil society levels and it is frequently addressed by the academic environment. The article summarizes the multiplicity of approaches, positions and expected outcomes of the reform in a synthetic model that includes the principles, objectives and conditions of the successful implementation of the local power territorial organization reform in the Republic of Moldova. It is argued the idea of abandoning the paradigm of the "administrative-territorial organization of the state territory" in favour of the public power territorial organization paradigm. The pursued aim is to reduce the theoretical and conceptual fragility of the reform.

This article attempts to analyze how the bureaucratic principles of organizing public administration evolved from Max Weber to public administration at the beginning of the 21st century. It is mentioned that M. Weber's formulation regarding the ideal type of bureaucracy is a classic approach of public administration. Public administration practice confirms that bureaucracy is not as predictable and clear as described in M. Weber's theory of bureaucracy. Unlike the ideal model of bureaucracy developed by M. Weber, the current system of public administration is an open system and incorporates much more complex features. This fact is conditioned by a series of factors that influence the activity of the public administration including: the level of development of democracy, economic and social development, information technologies, leadership style, administrative culture, professionalization of civil servants, etc.

The article is an account of Romanian Marxist discourse between 1970 and 1980, one that was completely engaged in the justification and legitimation of the contemporary totalitarian political regime. Radu Florian's works, one of the most representative authors of this decade, are analysed via the conceptual lenses of Austrian economic theory. This methodological approach is quite fertile, since it generates clear explanations why Marxist theory and the communist state incarnating its teachings could not and cannot implement their claims. The samples of Romanian Marxist discourse under scrutiny are a showcase of philosophy invaded by rhetorics and converted into ideology. The author concludes that Romanian Marxism in the designated period represents a long line of contradictions resulting from the attempt to adapt a cruel reality to a generous and humane self-construction of a political programme.

The process of European integration is a topic of major importance thanks to multiple approaches from experts, politicians, civil society representatives, on the grounds that its implementation in practice has an impact on all spheres of society, from educational to social, economic and political, but and on all the actors directly involved in this process, such as the European Union. At the present stage, for the successful European accession and integration of the Republic of Moldova, it becomes essential to study this process in terms of the given dimensions, because the expected result depends on their effective implementation. It should be noted that the accession process has registered both successes and failures on the path of Europeanization of the Republic of Moldova, there are impediments at the institutional level, although in terms of legislative connection to European standards Moldova has only succes

The article argues that mediation, in its essence, is a mechanism for social development, and solving problems in the public administration system through mediation contributes to organizational change and personal development of civil servants. The problem under investigation is to identify the factors that determine the final states of the social costs and benefits of the parties involved in the conflict and the methods of effective conflict management. According to the specified research problem, the conceptions about conflict are reviewed, which serve as a support for the steps taken in the analysis of the phenomenon of conflict in the public administration. The paper describes the elements of the conflict phenomenon and conflict management styles and states that the constructive approach to conflict resolution, based on active action strategy and the application of the win/win principle, is a mechanism that offers the possibility to change the current conflict situation and improve the decision-making process.

The health of the economy and the effectiveness of monetary policy depend on a sound financial system. Bank supervision involves monitoring and examining the condition of banks and their compliance with laws and regulations. If a bank under the Central Bank's or other authority's jurisdiction is found to have problems or be non compliant with the authority of supervision may use its authority to request that the bank correct the problems. Bank regulation includes issuing specific regulations and guidelines to govern the operations, activities and acquisitions of banking organizations. On other hand, both theory (game theory) and practice (recent financial crisis) indicate that national interests prevail in cross-border resolution. National authorities aim for the least-cost solution for domestic taxpayers. This results in an undersupply of the public good of communautaire and global financial stability. To preserve the internal market in banking, this paper proposes a supranational approach to banking supervision and resolution in Europe.

The article investigates the political mechanisms specific to contemporary Romanian politics and political parties, as well as those social representations related to gender roles and the
definition of family that have contributed to maintaining a low level of women participation in
Romanian politics after 1989. In a first part, it sets the conceptual context through a review of the
main theoretical approaches for the political representation of women, with an emphasis on
gender studies' cognitive dimension. Second, it connects a quantitative evaluation of women's
presence in the Romanian post communist parliament with a qualitative analysis of public (i.e.
mass media) discourse of the rejected legislative proposal to introduce gender quotas in various
political and social processes. The author finds that, beyond the dynamics of political elites'
recruitment and the functioning of the political "game", the ideological options and social
representations that emphasize the differences between men and women, as well the central role
of family in building gender roles play an essential part in maintaining a low number of women
within the Parliament.