The survey was conducted between March 30 and April 11, 2021 on a national sample of 1420 subjects. He measured the state of religiosity of the citizens with the help of several indicators: faith in God, frequency of prayers, church, fasting, confession, observance of holidays, reading the Bible, etc. The survey also measured attitudes toward teaching religion in schools, same-sex marriages, faith in the horoscope, trust in priests, attitudes toward abortion, the pandemic, politicians, and voting intentions.
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. More often than not, the individual behaviour acquired the expression of the collective behaviour. Such an influence of the community was obvious in the traditional rural societies. However, in time, it became progressively diluted under the pressure of modernity. We can see that there were deep changes as the area integrated to an economic circuit that would lead to imposing new mutations in several economic sectors. The economic development and the dissemination of non-agricultural activities associated to urban development whose influence went growing brought about alterations in the family relations. Then, there were mutations in the relationship between the family, the domestic group and the household resources. These changes were not obvious in all localities in the region: some of them were still anchored in the traditional as the new managed to penetrate more difficultly, while major changes on the level of the collective mental could not be perceived on a short span of time. Nevertheless, under the influence of modernity, society influenced the family not only in point of form, but also insofar as its role and functions were concerned. Mentalities changed together with the form and nature of society. Family was no longer big; it did no longer accept the interference of the relatives and even less that of the community. Changes were more visible in the city; however, once the social, cultural and economic changes, they became obvious in the countryside too. The nuclear family was the new family model where interference from the outside was insignificant.
Divorce, common-law marriage and illegitimacy (irrespective of its forms) were, no matter the society typology as the phenomenon is approached, forms of social deviation that entailed the dilution of the family image and norms. We do not discuss here about a dilution of the traditional norms concerning family, as someone might misunderstand, it was an erosion of the idea of family in general. The "family" could acquire different forms as compared to the "official" one. Paradoxically, all these were not only the result of personal emancipation, when the youth broke from the traditional norms, which were strongly influenced by religious norms and values, and would have got involved in "dangerous and shameful relationships". The peasant "forgot" to marry his woman not out of emancipation. The theory of personal emancipation leading to the erosion of the idea of family through the dilution of traditional norms, which was valid from the urban perspective (here, due to the affirmation of modernity, the alterity of religious norms led to such relationships), was not supported in the peasant countryside. The Church fought all these. In fact, the bishopric sent guidelines to priests to take steps against common-law marriages very often. Despite priests' endeavours, the results were not considerable. Few priests could boast (after the first recommendation) in their subsequent parish report to have significantly contributed to diminishing the number of common-law marriages in their parish. The Church faced another issue brought about by its long debate with the State to control the act of marriage. The marriage laws set out in 1894 were the most complex laws regulating the political-religious relations in the matrimonial field in the second half of the 19th century. Due to their clarity, they managed to put an end to the conflicts between the lay and church authorities. Moreover, the debate concerning matrimonial issues for different confessions ended, too, in favour of the State. The State managed to impose its authority in the matrimonial field. The Church was thus compelled to accept the increased competence of the State by introducing the civil documents. All these caused mutations that triggered very different behaviours. Nevertheless, the Church kept imposing religious marriage, divorce and re-marriage for all its parishioners. In such a situation, by analysing the evolution of common-law marriages from the perspective of the Church, we may notice that, on the level of the whole area we focused on, there was a greater easiness in approaching religious marriage after 1895, once the compulsory civil marriage was imposed. The perception of the divorce also changed when the civil matrimonial law was introduced at the end of 1894. Through a last effort, as the Church did not acknowledge lay divorce, they did not grant the right to a second marriage to the individuals. Moreover, from the perspective of the Church, the possible future marriage was considered as a mere common-law marriage, although the State approved of the divorce and the second marriage in which a divorced partner was involved.
A marriage amongst youth belonging to the Greek-Catholic and Orthodox confessions was considered almost normal in certain communities. This can be explained by the fact that few parishioners could grasp the differences between the two confessions. At the same time, we have the ethnical aspect. Ethnie could not be separated in this case from confession, as both Greek-Catholics and Orthodox in the area are mostly of Romanian ethnie. These elements should be considered especially since we considered a mainly rural area, where customs "laws" are superposed over the official ones. On the other hand, in the mixed Greek-Catholic and Roman-Catholic communities, inter-confessional marriages are easier accepted on the "official" level. An important constraint, or, on the contrary, a strong determination against a mixed inter-confessional family came from the families. As mentioned before, a strong pressure against achieving a mixed marriage came from the church. Both parishes to which the youngsters belonged had to be consulted. In order to have a religious marriage, they needed an engagement exemption from the archpriest (they came weeks, even months late, there were situations when the marriages were not accepted, so there would be no exemption). They had to pay a large amount for the exemption, so that many youngsters could not afford to pay for it; this was often solved by clandestine "wild" marriage. However, both the State and the Church wished to stop this phenomenon, so they took steps in this area.
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.
Since 1992, in the wake of the first elections held in May 1990 and the adoption of a Constitution in 1991, parliamentary and local elections have been held every four years. Romanian electorate voted six times in presidential elections and seven times in referenda (referenda were more numerous than the ones organized during the whole modern history of the country). Reinvented in 1989, Romanian political parties had to pass all these tests. The main purpose of the article is to give a comprehensive, systematic and detailed view on Romanian parties' performance, both in terms of votes and mandates. Therefore, data is organized following four main criteria: legal status, the mobilization in electoral competitions, parliamentary status, and participation to government.
This study proposed, first, to carry out, based on archive documents, an incursion as regards matrimonial relationships of XVIIIth century with all legal, economic and social connotations involved. The marriage contracts studied fall into a typology more closely of what was happening in the same period in Western Europe than in South Eastern Europe. This is because such acts have emerged within the former county of Arad in the first half of the century after the establishment of Habsburg domination and after the German colonists were brought into the area. Besides the juridical problems regarding the contractual liabilities of the spouses, the status of the children, some problems related to wealth and dowry, I tried to mark out some aspects regarding the everyday life of Arad's inhabitants in the XVIIIth century.
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 socio-professional element in marital options was extremely reduced taking into account that we have considered a rural area almost in its entirety. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, this world used to have a strong traditional propensity with a low number of professional options, as most inhabitants were mainly involved in agriculture. As a consequence, when speaking about the socio-professional determinism in choosing a marriage partner, we have to take into account the fact that most youth getting married had mostly rural professions. On the other hand, the socio-professional element was more active in urban area and in the environment dominated by Roman-Catholic or Reformed population. The social and professional status undoubtedly had an important role in achieving and settling a family despite the reduced number of options. Personal emancipation and socio-professional status had a determining influence on choosing a partner. The phenomenon was more obvious in the city and towards the beginning of the 20th century in other rural places, where the traditional left room to a process of socio-economic modernisation under the influence of the increasing number of non-agricultural activities. As one can easily anticipate, these changes led to new mental perceptions and hence to a new reaction of the community. Deep changes could be noticed as this area joined an economic circuit leading to new mutations in several economic sectors. Economic development and the spreading of non-agricultural activities associated to urban development whose influence was ever growing entailed changes in family relations. There were also mutations in family relations, domestic group and household resources. These changes were not yet visible in all places in the region: some were still anchored in the traditional where the new had a hard time to penetrate, while major changes on the level of the collective mental could not be seized during the time we analysed. The large scale analysis of the phenomenon has led to the conclusion that where there were better socio-professional options, their determinism on marriage could be identified as highly important. How can we determine the way in which the socio-professional element influenced marriage? To what extent a young man with a superior social and professional status had more marital options? To what extent other "constraints" (confession, ethnie, civil status, age, etc.) were less important when facing strong socio-professional determinism? More precisely, was a man with a superior socio-professional status wanted by many young women despite old age, his civil status as a widower or a divorcee, of if he had a different confession or ethnie? To identify the mechanism of this determinism, we suggest a more complex analysis where the socio-professional element should be corroborated with other marriage determinisms or constraints. From these premises, we will attempt to make a methodological analysis of the socio-professional status from three points of view: ethno-confessional element, civil status and age of partners.
The two documents which are the subject of the present study, made to share property in the event of divorce, help to form an image on various aspects of daily life, poorly known from other sources: household size, land property, earnings in marriage furniture, tools, animals, prices, food, secular and religious involvement of the private life etc. In addition to legal information, both inventories, which stood at the base of documents on which the property was to be divided, reveal another perspective on social history of Arad in the late eighteenth century.
The study aims to carry out an analysis from demographic perspective for the city of Arad during the years 1767-1768. It is based on two documents that contain mainly statistical data with which it is possible to emphasize aspects related to some demographical behaviour in Arad. Information about the deceased, newborns and marriages registered, about the share of different ethnicities and confessions help us to outline the image of Arad, in which, during the XVIIIth century has been seen a clear process of modernization and demographic growth.
The parish registers of civil status, although the main sources of documentation for historical demography, are used with significant results by the other sciences such as history, ethnography, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, etc.. The perspectives of approaching the rural community and family have expanded considerably using these sources of ecclesiastical origin documentaries. The first researchers who refer to a systematic methodology that uses the parish registers of civil status as documentary sources for the completion of demographic data suggest the use of other sources, hitherto unused for this purpose. They will apply a new method, a modern innovation, the stripping and analysis of parish registers of civil status within the meaning of the reconstruction of demographic events (birth, marriage, death). The family reconstitution method, by analyzing the parish registers of civil status proposed by L. Henry and M. Fleury, has revolutionized the field of study dealing with people. Louis Henry believes that the parish registers of civil status is the ultimate source of information for the pre-state period and this is precisely the reason for which he proposes restoring the family's biological life. Church registers are only able to give us an insight into the family in rural areas, at least for the second half of the XIX century. Church documents, the fundamental sources for researching family life, are of two categories: 1. civil status registers and annual reports of the parishes, 2. Church authorities funds, documents and minutes recorded by the bishops. These documents are complex sources for the researcher interested in historical demography, social history, and the economic history of toponymy, birthdays, etc. Processing the data contained in these records requires a specific methodology. They allow us to observe trends that have occurred on the long-term demographic events such as: birth, marriage or death. These records are presented for a long time as their only source of documentation regarding civil status and demographic events in the life of most people. Researching these records can unveil important features of natural population movement, the phenomenon of birth, of marriage, the divorce or death. Then, an analysis of form and content of these registers can capture the cultural universe of the priests who fill these records. These Church documents proved to be important, especially where other documentary sources (mainly those in the category of records made by the state) have proved insufficient, incomplete and unclear. The parish registers of civil status in this case are suitable for both a qualitative analysis, and a quantitative one at the level of local communities. Beyond their usefulness and significance of documentary source, these documents should be regarded as being subjective because they were managed by priests (every priest is then an exponent to promote demographic and confessional "realities" and such realities were viewed from the perspective of his own religious convictions). The parish registers, however, prove to be the only documents that allow us to penetrate the privacy of individuals in each community. A documentary is also undeniably a good dowry that researchers should promote and use in their research not only locally but also to verify and demonstrate certain behaviours and overall trends.
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.
More often than not, the State did not acknowledge the matrimonial norms as settled by the Church. This relation seems to have altered towards the end of the 19th century, when the State succeeded in imposing on the Church the respect for the general civil framework. Yet, the change was not radical. The Church and the State were still pretty connected. The State acknowledged the Church's right to be in charge with officiating marriages, with bed and home separation according to the requirements of each confession. However, the State had the right to supervise the civil and military status, the relationship between the spouses, legacy, legal guardianship, the issue of supporting children and spouses and many others. The Church admitted the involvement of the State in major demographic issues in an individual's life. As time went by, the State became more and more complex while its legislation became ever more "lay". It is true that willy-nilly lay legislation borrowed norms and regulations belonging to Church's legislation. The frail State – Church dualism on family law was influenced by lay laws enforcing the lay legitimacy of important moments in man's life. Matrimonial laws as set out in 1894 were the most complex laws in the 19th century. Due to their clarity, they managed to put an end to misunderstandings between lay and Church authorities. Moreover, the matrimonial issues between different confessions were in favour of the State. Civil law very clearly favoured family and children's interests. They were all conceived to better supervise individual's education in a moral family where the Church would still have an influence.
It is certain that contemporary higher education institutions have entered the era of great transformation. The environment they operate in has changed fundamentally: professional knowledge and skills have become the main generator of economic development. At the same time, the university is no longer the only provider of high-quality knowledge. Competition on the market of knowledge and academic education services is getting tougher. The efforts made by national education in modernizing and reforming the national higher educational system, in the context of European rigors and exigencies, would not be that obvious if they were not supported by our international partners through various community programs. The successful promotion of reforms in the educational system becomes possible only in terms of identifying, taking over good European practices in the field and implementing/ institutionalizing beneficial and valuable elements for the national higher education system. Good enforcement of reforming provisions is not possible unless there is a cooperative framework between the three main actors. The government shall implement new modern policies in higher education system; the civil society, on its turn shall take the responsibility and availability to be engaged in the reforming processes, and the higher education institutions shall accept the new context and implement the reforms on the institutional level, cooperating in the same way with the other two actors, meanwhile paying attention to the labour market.
