Suchergebnisse

This book, whose author spent half his professional life under communism, is the result of his longstanding interest in researching and above all understanding the causes that influenced the evolution of Romanian architecture within the conditions of a communist state, with direct reference to the architecture of Bucharest in particular. The book is aimed mainly at those who had little direct experience of the period from 1945 to 1989 or who were not practising architects at the time, and therefore it was regarded as opportune that the first part should be general in nature, focussing on the political transformation that took place within the practice of the profession, particularly in the early years of the regime, when the "single model" was imposed and the status of the architectural profession altered radically

The present article brings to the fore several details, which had been either unknown, or only partially familiar to the Romanian historiographers. The author refers to academic trajectories of the 14 young Romanians (almost half originating from Bucharest or Iaşi), who obtained their PhD in political and administrative sciences at the Free University of Brussels between 1885 and 1899. Over a third of them were also doctors in law. Of the 92 PhDs in political science awarded in Brussels between 1885-1899, the Romanians were on the second position in a formal hierarchy of the students who were not of Belgian descent. The foreigners counted 51 students, and the list was dominated by the Bulgarians, who had obtained 21 diplomas, while the Japanese held a distant third place with merely 4 PhD degrees.

The report is based on the study focused on particularities of regional development în the Republic of Moldovafrom the perspective of the European Union model of economic, social and territorial cohesion.The research defines regional development în terms of a new development paradigm,methodically cultivated în European states with the support of the European Unionand emphasizes establishment of this policy în the Republic of Moldova.Several findings and recommendations of the study are included în the NSRD Evaluation Report 2010-2012 and NSRD 2013-2015, în whose elaboration the author participated under the coordination of GIZ Moldova.Also, a range of general and sector recommendations are formulated, whose implementation would redefine regional development policy în the Republic of Moldova and boost territorial growth and development în an external periphery of the European Union.

In the article the author tackles a contemporary issue that is important for institutional strengthening of the Republic of Moldova. Developing a mechanism for efficient interaction of institutions of state power with political parties, ruling ones and in opposition, with the groups of interests, especially those institutional and associative, represents a strategic objective for the Republic of Moldova. Assessing institutions with "rules of the game", the contemporary political science updates the significance of the Constitution for organisation and good unfolding of the political process, for ensuring stability and at the same time dynamism of the socio-political system. The conclusions of the investigation of complex issues like dynamic political processes, functionality of political institutions in conditions of instability / political crisis, contain an educational, instructive message, important for the political actors of the Moldovan society.

The article presents the way the first Associations and Foundations are set up in Romania, focusing on the tight circle of people dedicated to the domain and specialized on the road, staying forever in the NGO sector, moving from one organization to another or working for more than one at the same time. From lack of legislation to unclear regulations, NGOs struggle on their path with logistical issues which influenced their performance, public image, their projects and mostly their results. The author identifies the outcome as determined by the struggle to access grants, the NGO agenda versus financer's agenda, the absence of grants for a specific type of issues, the shortage of the professionalized staff, the challenge of working with volunteers, the compulsory annual reports and financial reports to the Government authorities.

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.

Nowadays, criticism of the UN is related to excessive bureaucracy, to the parallelism in the functions of many of its structures. In addition, the UN is accused of reacting more to crises than preventing them. The selective interest of the United Nations in conflicts in different regions of the world gives reasons to assert the presence in its activity of double standards. Especially, the UN authority has been greatly undermined by such events as the United States's actions in Iraq and Yugoslavia, after which many have questioned international law in general and United Nations, in particular. Thereat, there are a lot of statements that the United Nations is in the deepest crisis and there is a set of proposals and views on the content and essence of the need for UN reform. In this article, the author argues the opportunity of UN reform, elucidating some current gaps in the work of this international organization and coming up with concrete recommendations to remedy them.

In the context of internationalisation the national issues regarding the restitution of nationalised immovable goods in different stages of history, the subject at hand, represents a pioneering analysis of a complex national reality. Recent practice of Romanian courts has revealed a delicate problem that is apparently the object of debate and resolve of the national and international academic environment. Through the analysis the author tackles the problem of discrimination that is committed by the national law that regulates the matter of restitution of goods that were abusively taken over by the state, from the point of view of the theoretician, as well as the practitioner, pointing out the necessity of direct cooperation with the European courts. The negative discrimination, resulting from the art. 36 of 18/1991 law, can be analysed as an objective and rational justification that would allow the direct practice of the European convention of human rights concerning the litigations about "Land Act" (Law no. 18/1991)

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.

Mixed marriage is one of the factors providing the link between interethnic and interreligious communities. Ethnic and confessional diversity of the population imposes a communication, an interference of different ethno-confessional communities. As these communities were living together, it was natural that this "cooperation" should be visible in the case of marriage. Given the context, mixed marriages acquired an innate multiculturalism due to the need for living together. The "social barriers" completed the ethnic and confessional differences. The State becoming more and more powerful in time imposed itself and promoted a new perception of mixed marriage through a lay legislation. On the other hand, in the mixed Greek-Catholic and Roman-Catholic communities, inter-confessional marriages were more easily accepted officially as both confessions were under the same hierarchic authority, the Pope. It is important to get a glimpse of the ethnic structures and their dynamics, as well as of the confessional realities to have a clear image in the analysis of interethnic or inter-confessional marriages. Marriage may be one of the social mechanisms to change the demographic volume of certain communities not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively, and to alter traditional spiritual values.

Carol I and the political leaders maintained the two-party system founded by the political parties, National-Liberal Party and Conservative Party (after their formation) with balanced forces, in not conceding importance to the political factions or other parties, which could generate political instability. Expressing as a true arbiter in political life, Carol I used the alternation at government of the National-Liberal Party with the Conservative Party from 1895-1914, called in the specialized literature as "rotativa guvernamentală" ("governmental rotation"). In running of this type as organized alternation, an important role was assigned to Carol I, who took over the British model, because it ensured the public peace and permitted a balance of forces between conservators and liberals.The alternation mechanism to government of conservators with liberals has functioned before 1895, but with unequal period of time, with alliances between liberal and conservator factions (1866-1871); between parties and different factions of conservators (1888-1895). This system allowed the consolidation of the two government parties and the state institutions. The collaboration of the two parties was accomplished for the welfare of the state: in situations of political, economic, crises the two parties were supporting each other. The government program applied by a party which was in government was continued by the party who succeeded in power.

The paper analyzes the dynamics of electoral participation and its predictors in Romania, using both official data on turnout and post-electoral survey data. The turnout in the Romanian parliamentary elections has declined by over
50% in the last 20 years of democratic reconstruction. However, turnout decline is
unevenly distributed, being more dramatic in the last decade especially in the urban
areas as well as among younger cohorts of voters. The decline of turnout in parliamentary elections is also accompanied by a shift in the importance of the predictors of voting. The analyses of electoral participation and its predictors
suggest that voting in the Romanian parliamentary elections has become the attribute of a minority of citizens who still feel closer to a political party, are interested in politics, trust the political institutions and leaders, ideologically place themselves at the extremes of the left-right axis, and of those who are more exposed to mobilization attempts both because they live in smaller communities in the rural areas which are more easily controlled by local political leaders and because they are part of social networks that are influenced by political parties or politicians.
This is the "hard core" of a generally apathetic electorate which is unconfident in the efficacy of elections as a tool for producing social transformations, a public which is becoming less and less demanding with the politicians after the subsequent disappointments with the democratic governance after 1989.