Suchergebnisse

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.

The study relies on a complex research project, financed by the European Union, which aimed at measuring, first of all, the training and managerial consultancy needs of entrepreneurs and of those who wish to start a business in the rural environment in the North-Eastern, Central and South-Eastern areas of Romania (18 counties). In order to understand these training and consultancy needs, the research also investigated the issue of values. By identifying the specificity of rural entrepreneurial culture, we can understand the current situation in the entrepreneurial environment of Romanian villages and draw up strategies for its development. The research shows that there is a great deal of interest to start a business among young persons, but the existent managerial culture is extremely poor.