Post-Communist Romania at Twenty-Five

Linking Past, Present, and Future

Edited by Lavinia Stan, Diane Vancea

Publication date:

12 April 2019

Length of book:

326 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498501118

BOOK DESCRIPTION
TABLE OF CONTENTS

2014 marked the 25th anniversary of the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe. The events of 1989 are widely seen as having ushered in new all-encompassing reforms in almost all areas of life. In few other places were reforms more contested and divisive than in Romania, a country that suffered greatly under the sultanistic-cum-totalitarian dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu, faced the region’s only bloody anti-communist revolt, and as such had the longest to travel on the road from communism to democracy. We now have a generation’s worth of experience with these wrenching reforms that have deeply affected Romania’s political institutions and political culture, and ultimately allowed it to become a member of the coveted European Union club. This volume gathers key lessons for democratic theory and practice from Romania’s first twenty-five years of post-communist transformation. Written by leading experts in the field of Romanian Studies, the chapters focus on the most important factors that have shaped the country’s political transformation during the first 25 years of post-communism.

Table of Content

Preface – Paul E. Sum
Introduction – Lavinia Stan

Part I. Expectations for a Democratic Future and Worries about the Communist Past
Chapter 1. The Start of a New Era? Romanians React to Ceauşescu’s Fall – Katherine Verdery
Chapter 2. Coming to Terms with the Communist Past: Democracy and Memory in Romania –Marius Stan and Vladimir Tismaneanu
Chapter 3. Public Space and the Material Legacies of Communism in Bucharest – Duncan Light and Craig Young

Part II. Politics from Below: Identity, Civil Society, and the Media
Chapter 4. Ethnicity, Nationalism and the ‘Minority Regime’ – Levente Salat and Csaba Zoltán Novak
Chapter 5. On Women, Feminism and Democracy – Mihaela Miroiu
Chapter 6. Political Culture and Participation: Between Enthusiasm and Indifference – Radu Cinpoes
Chapter 7. Spectacular Alterations, Few Changes in Romania’s Media – Peter Gross

Part III. Politics from Above: Representation, Parties, and Presidents
Chapter 8. Representation, Incumbency and the Quality of Romanian Democracy – Ronald F. King and Cosmin Gabriel Marian
Chapter 9. Unsocial Democrats: The PSD’s Negative Role in Romania’s Democracy – Tom Gallagher
Chapter 10. House of Cards: The Presidency from Iliescu to Basescu – Lavinia Stan and Diane Vancea

Part IV. The EU Factor: Accession, Rule of Law, and Human Rights
Chapter 11. Romania's Commitment to the Rule of Law? – Dennis Deletant
Chapter 12. Environmental Network Governance in Romania – Cristina E. Parau
Conclusion – Monica Ciobanu