THE BETRAYAL OF INTELLECTUALS? REFLECTIONS ON THE CIVIC ALLIANCE PROJECT IN ROMANIA AFTER DECEMBER 1989
THE BETRAYAL OF INTELLECTUALS? REFLECTIONS ON THE CIVIC ALLIANCE PROJECT IN ROMANIA AFTER DECEMBER 1989

Summary/Abstract: The domestic and international public opinion has often drawn attention to the fact the Romanian realities in the aftermath of December 1989 did not undergo the expected radical transformation. The new political structures, both at the top level and at the local administration level, were made up of members who had belonged to the former communist political structures. In response, a part of the Romanian society showed the need for a civic organization model which would represent a genuine opposition to post-communist regime led by Ion Iliescu and his collaborators. Such a civic organization brought together a group of intellectuals around an ambitious project aimed at radically transforming civil society and public opinion. But one of the unsolved dilemmas in post-communist Romania refers to the general assessment of the public intellectuals’ participation and activity in the process of democratic transition. The present study aims at highlighting the role that the intellectual members of the Civic Alliance played in Romania’s public life after December 1989, by attempting to point out their involvement in forming civil society and informing public opinion. One probably expects for such a reality to be painted in absolute terms instead of being grayish; moreover, the public commitment of the Civic Alliance intellectuals to public issues is a matter of deciding on the limits of their actions and on the barriers between accomplishments and failures. That is, I think, a decision to be made at the level of a public debate.

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