The Uses of Absurdity: The Staged War Theory and the Romanian Revolution of December 1989
The Uses of Absurdity: The Staged War Theory and the Romanian Revolution of December 1989
Author(s): Richard Andrew HallSubject(s): Civil Society, Political history, Government/Political systems, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Post-Communist Transformation, Sociology of Politics
Published by: SAGE Publications Ltd
Keywords: Collapse of Communism; authoritarian regime; Romanian revolution of December 1989; post-communist society;
Summary/Abstract: Historiography never takes place in a vacuum-particularly not in a country that has only recently experienced the collapse of a long-standing authoritarian regime. The historiography of the Romanian Revolution of December 1989 exemplifies the forces that can undermine the accuracy of contemporary chronicles in a recently post-authoritarian society. Debilitating behavioral legacies left by a pedantic, deceitful, and repressive regime, the struggle for public opinion and political power in the post-authoritarian era, and the lingering interests, identities, and loyalties of former authoritarians have fused in the Romanian case to seriously debase the historiography of the December 1989 transition. [...]
Journal: East European Politics and Societies
- Issue Year: 13/1999
- Issue No: 03
- Page Range: 501-542
- Page Count: 42
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF