In: Analele Universității București: Annals of the University of Bucharest = Les Annales de l'Université de Bucarest. Științe politice = Political science series = Série Sciences politiques, Band 4, S. 91-104
This study proposes an analysis of how the National Liberal Party (PNL), the National Peasant Party (PNT) and the National Christian Party (PNC) used caricatures, lyrics or electoral posters to build a more favorable image of their own party or compromise the opponent. Based in particular on the sources existing in the official party press and the so-called independent one, we proceeded to a description of the three elements, including the meanings and messages intended for the electorate. With a predominantly rural population (over 80%), poorly educated in regard to civic issues, caricature and electoral lyrics were used in particular by the PNT and the so-called independent press to attack the ruling party, as well as the formation of A. C. Cuza and Octavian Goga, and to target those with a nationalist-peasant affiliation. Through the three types of confrontation, the parties in our study have endeavored to transmit as effectively as possible the eccentric populist and manipulative messages aimed at attracting thousands of voters. Although both the national and the nationalist-peasant press used caricature and versification as a political weapon, there are immense differences between the contents of the two camps, the caricaturist Petrică Lazar and the anti-Semitic poet Vasile Militaru - known also under the pseudonym of Radu Barda - preferring the construction of satirical images and poems that contained huge doses of grotesque, beliefs and prejudices about the Jewish minority.
By analyzing the parliamentary debates of 1866-1867 on foreigners' (notably Jews) requests for naturalization and property rights, this article tries to identify the parliamentarians' answers to the following questions: On what grounds were foreigners accepted as Romanian citizens? How did the parliamentarians define the foreigner? What was required from a foreigner in order to become a citizen? The overall objective is to identify some major themes that preoccupied the representatives of the nation, circumscribed around the primordial character of the "union" and of "nationality", with a special focus on the solutions proposed by the liberals. The argument is that the Parliament, by its vote, instead of granting citizenship rights, merely established the conditions according to which one could become a Romanian. In other words, the Romanian legislators considered it to be of outmost importance to recognize the quality of being a Romanian, that is, a member of an ethnic body, and not to define citizenship as a legal membership. "To be a Romanian" was more of an ethnic belonging, a "given", than citizenship or civic loyalty, defined through political and civic rights. It seems that citizenship was crushed by the primordial character of ethnic loyalty and by the weight of the state as expression and guarantor of the Romanian nation. In engaging the parliamentary debates about naturalization, the article attempts, first, to draw more nuanced conclusions about the lately much-debated character of citizenship in Romania and Eastern Europe during the mid-19th century. And second, such an analysis may provide a better understanding of the nature of political representation during the same period.
Among "the bad years" of the 18th century that affected the city of Arad, 14 of it were because of the floods, the most severe overflows taking place on July 1771. The devastations were considerable and due especially to the fact that the city wasn't protected and the bad weather lasted full days, the waters retracting only after about 7-8 days. The authorities were interested in stocktaking the effects of the overflow and as a cause they organized charts in which were totalized the losses suffered by the inhabitants of the city in the summer of 1771. The data from these charts permit us to realize the immensity of the disaster: 252 completely destroyed houses, 9 dead, about 8500 florins losses due to the overflowed and devastated gardens, the inundation of the agrarian fields from the proximity of the city, 200 animals drowned, 88 hives destroyed by the waters etc. Even though the authorities realized along the time works meant to regularize the flow of the river Mureş, and the urban policy thought about the danger of the floods, the city of Arad kept to be endangered by the river in the decades that followed until the waters overflowed again in: 1772, 1774, 1779, 1780, 1783, 1785, 1793 and 1799.
Until 2019 the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova were based on a proportional system on party lists, at the parliamentary elections of February 24, 2019 it was applied the mixed voting system, an uninspired mix between the proportional and the majority system. There were created 51 uninominal constituencies for the parliamentary elections of February 24, 2019, of which 3 over the borders of the republic, 46 on the territory of the Republic of Moldova controlled by the constitutional authorities and 2 in the Transnistrian region. There are examined the particularities of conducting the parliamentary elections in the uninominal constituency no. 43, Cahul municipality: the profiles of the candidates, their electoral actions and the results obtained in this electoral constituency. It was found that a common tendency for candidates was, in many cases, the reorientation of the electoral discourse from the issues of "national interest" to those of "local interest", even if their solution is not within the competence of a deputy.
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.
In: Analele Universității București: Annals of the University of Bucharest = Les Annales de l'Université de Bucarest. Științe politice = Political science series = Série Sciences politiques, Band 2, S. 21-33
Although many institutions were involved in the cultural diplomacy of the Romanian communist regime, a very consistent part of the artistic exchanges with the East and the West were mediated by the Union of Artists. This paper would like to highlight the important role the Union played in framing the artistic exchanges with several "capitalist countries" and "popular democracies", by looking at several agreements of collaboration between Unions or similar institutions. More precisely, we will look at the variations regarding the form and the quantity of exchanges that were established through such official documents and which referred mainly to exchanges of persons, informations or exhibitions. We will also look at the way these were organized in practice: the study of the travel reports, informative notes or daily programs that were produced on such occasions shows that these exchanges were systematically surveilled and politically motivated. A preliminary analysis of these allows us to observe the Union's interests regarding the East and the West and suggests that the Romanian Union of Artists contributed to the expansion, the regulation and at the same time the control of the cultural contacts with foreign countries.
In: Analele Universității București: Annals of the University of Bucharest = Les Annales de l'Université de Bucarest. Științe politice = Political science series = Série Sciences politiques, Band 6, S. 3-14
The recognition of the local collectivities and the essential role of democratic society require the clear definition of the term "local collectivity", which would allow the avoiding of ambiguities in its usage. The defining element of the local territorial collectivities is the population, which includes all inhabitants permanently living in the territorial perimeter of the local collectivity. There are identified criteria that allow the establishment of the individuals' belonging to a specific local collectivity. This is very important because the individual's ability to be part of a particular local collectivity gives him the opportunity to take part in local selfgovernment. I insisted on the recognition of the local population as a subject of the local autonomy, and not of the local public authorities elected by the population who are representatives of the local territorial collectivities, while also examining the causes of the population's nonparticipation in local public life.
Nicolae Ceauşescu was born in 1918 and he died in 1989. Due to the extraordinary changes that the Romanian society witnessed during his time, the biography of this son of the peasantry may be re-signified in several vastly contradictory ways. For all intents and purposes however, he may be placed in the category of "professional revolutionaries", an extremely positive valuation within the contemporary Leninist ideology. Once in contact with the illegal communist movement, Ceauşescu became an outlaw, practically from the age of 15. The aftermath of WWII thrust him at the core of decision-making and at the focal point of Romanian power, a position he retained uninterruptedly until three days before his death. He held absolute power for nearly a quarter of a century. His atypical biography also dwindled his already scarce grasp of reality. The propaganda that had sustained the cult for "professional revolutionaries", and -during the final decades- the cult of his own personality determined grave distortions in his social perception, leading, in the "Ceauşescu case", to the "ultimate solution".
In: Analele Universității București: Annals of the University of Bucharest = Les Annales de l'Université de Bucarest. Științe politice = Political science series = Série Sciences politiques, Band 9, S. 51-56
The name is one of the essential basic elements of the identity of a local collectivity. The local collectivity is self-identified and individualized through its name, in relation to the other collectivities of the same type. The name of local collectivities have functioned and developed during the centuries. Their meaning, content and evolution provide the valuable information concerning the evolution of local collectivities over time. The return to the traditional names of local territorial collectivities was the first stage of the attempts to the territorial-administrative reform in Moldova. Although, many localities have reestablished their historical names, the process is not ended. Still today, one can find in toponymic landscape of Moldova, the names of localities which are improper to the national spirit and historical traditions. The procedure regarding the assignment or change of the designation and the return to the historical names of local collectivities is in the process of examination.