Postsocjalistyczne dziedzictwo społeczne Rumunii
Post-socialist social heritage in Romania

Summary/Abstract: The article briefly reviews the conclusions from the recent sociological research on post-socialist social heritage in Romania. Its results are bitter. Socialism left behind—in a societal sense—deformed and injured beings and human minds, it embodied irrationality, and promoted a "senile mentality" in this country. Since 1989, when the former regime collapsed, multidimensional social changes have occurred: the polarization of lifestyles, impoverishment of the people, moral crisis and distrust in public institutions. The “new” Romanian society is characterized by such features as the struggle for survival, “mini-development,” leftist conservatism, apparent democracy (“for display”), minimal citizen activity, lack of interest in the public life, distrust of the state's effectiveness, full subjugation to the state and its organs. After 1989, numerous research institutions with the aim of investigating the recent past of the Romanian state have been founded. However, they are strictly politically oriented and are instrumentally used by the politicians.

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