Representing democracy in the 19th century Romanian political discourse means, first of all, to focus the analysis on the implications the concept of democracy could provide. In the period following the 1848 revolution, and especially after 1866, the concept of Romanian democracy and its place within political discourse are conditioned by philosophical and historiographical discontinuities between the periods, by the intellectual sources, by the political and by the institutional framework of that time. In this sense, democracy should be regarded as a fundamental concept to political and institutional development in the last three decades of 19th century. In the critical approach of democracy as it appears in the Romanian political discourse, the vocation or the instinct of being democratic is constantly denied by a more plausible approach - the "volitional" democracy. This aspect might serve as an explanation to the multiple hesitations of the democratic background of the founding Romanian institution. The present article goes on this path, analyzing an example of political discourse in the works of a member of the "1866" generation.
More...This paper discusses why the issue regarding the relationship with the recent past is still so important in Romanian politics and how the 2004 electoral events can be regarded as a moment of the history illustrating the cleavage between ”anti-communists” and ”ex-communists”, even though at first sight the political discourses were not characterized by the confrontation on the communist past. The second part explains how, in the Romanian case, the political use of the communist past rendered impossible the reach of a minimum consensus on the critical consideration of the recent past. Other issues discussed question in what respects this illustrates a problematic democratization process, and how this leads to difficulties in the institutionalization of democracy because it involves the core identity of the political community.
More...Keywords: chronological order; political landscape; Romania;
Sources used: the collection of newspapers "Adevărul", "Evenimentul Zilei", "România Libera" and" Ziarul Politic", shows news of television stations Antena 1, PRO-TV and TV România 1.
More...Miruna Tätaru-Cazaban - GUGLIELMO D’OCKHAM, Il filosofo e la politica. Otto questioni circa il potere del papa, introduzione, traduzione e apparati di FRANCESCO CAMASTRA Rusconi, Milano, 1999, 624 pp; Raluca Alexandrescu - QUENTIN SKINNER, La liberté avant le libéralisme, traduit de l'anglais par Muriel Zagha Seuil, 2000,135 pp; Miruna Tătaru-Cazaban - EUGENIO GUCCIONE, Gioacchino Ventura. Alle rădici della democrazia cristiana, Centro Siciliano Sturzo, Palermo, 1999, 335 pp; Ruxandra Ivan - MIHAELA CZOBOR-LUPP, STEFAN LUPP (eds.), Moral, Legal and Political Values in Romanian Culture, The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, Washington, 2002, 328 pp; Alexandra Ionescu - RICHARD D. ANDERSON Jr., M. STEVEN FISH, STEPHEN E. HANSON, PHILIP G. ROEDER, Postcommunism and the Theory of Democracy, introduction by GEORGE W. BRESLAUER, Princeton University Press, Princeton & Oxford, 2001, 201 pp; Miruna Tătaru-Cazaban - ALAIN BOUREAU, La loi du royaume. Les moines, le droit et la construction de la nation anglaise (XIe-XIIIe siècles), Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 2001, 355 pp; Miruna Tàtaru-Cazaban - EAN-FRANÇOIS COURTINE, Nature et empire de la loi. Études suareziennes, Éditions de l'École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, Vrin, 1999,191 pp; Radu Carp - STEPHEN D. KRASNER (ed.), Problematic Sovereignty - Contested Rules and Political Possibilities, Columbia University Press, New York, 2001; Ioan Stanomir - CRISTIAN IONESCU, Drept constituțional și instituții politice, vol. I: Teoria generală a instituțiilor politice; vol. II: Sistemul constitutional românesc, Editura Lumina Lex, București, 2001, 591+ 408 pp; Ramona Coman ,Ana-Maria Dobre - PAUL MAGNETTE, La Constitution de l’Europe, Éditions de l'Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, 2000, 201 pp; Ramona Coman - PAUL MAGNETTE (ed.), L’Europe, l’État et la démocratie, Éditions Complexe, Bruxelles, 2000, 262 pp; Ramona Coman , Ana-Maria Dobre - BALAN BALANYA, ANN DOHERTY, OLIVIER H0EDEMAN, ADAM MA’ANIT, ERIK WESSELIUS, Europe Inc. Regional and Global Restructuring and the Rise of Corporate Power, Pluto Press, London, 2000, 256 pp; Silvia Marton - CLAUDE NICOLET, Histoire, nation,république, Éditions Odile Jacob, Paris, 2000, 342 pp; Camelia Runceanu - JEROME HELIE, Mic atlas istoric al Timpurilor moderne, traducere de Oana-Maria Toma, Polirom, colecția „Atlase istorice", Iași, 2001,184 pp; Ionela Băluță - A fi conservator, antologie, comentarii și bibliografie de IOAN STANOMIR și LAURENȚIU VLAD, Editura Meridiane, colecția „Studia Politica Analecta", București, 2002, 528 pp; Simona Rota - LAURENȚIU VLAD, Propagandă și identitate. România la Expozițiile universale belgiene, 1897-1935, Cris, București, 2001, 141 pp; Alexandra Ionescu - PAUL G. LEWIS, Political Parties in Post-Communist Eastern Europe, Routledge, London & New York, 2000, 202 pp; Ramona Coman - JEAN-MICHEL DE WAELE (ed.), Partis politiques et démocratie en Europe Centrale et Orientale, Éditions de l'Université Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, 2002, 224 pp; Oana Suciu - KURT LUTHER & KRIS DESCHOUWER (eds.), Party Elites in Divided Societies: Political Parties in Consociational Democracy, Routledge, London & New York, 1999, 291 pp;
More...Keywords: Roman town; urban topography; town plans; Russian surveying activities; history of cartography;
In this article, we present an unknown plan of the town of Roman and its surroundings, provided by the Russian State Military-Historical Archive in Moscow (RGVIA). Russian military engineers made the plan in 1770, during the Russian military occupation of Moldavia in the Russo-Turkish War (1769–1774). Our research objectives are mainly to describe and publish that plan, outline the historical context in which it appeared and highlight its topographical information. The plan captures an area of about 250 km2, which includes the Roman town and 12 nearby villages. It depicts a geographical landscape with noticeable differences from the current one, especially in terms of the hydrographic network, and it shows the geographic forms, the roads, the structure of the town and the locations of ecclesiastical and military objectives. The Russian military plan of the town of Roman from 1770 can be considered the oldest topographical survey of this urban centre in Moldavia.
More...Keywords: U.S.S.R; Intellectuals; Public Opinion; 1930s; national secret police;
Faced with the Soviet reality for the first time, the Romanian media and intelligentsia reacted variedly and cautiously. Their perception varied from mistrust of the former enemy, whose historically negative image was now supplanted by a potentially dangerous ideological side, to some - very few - cases of partisan enthusiasm. Such was the case of the shortly lived Association of USSR’s Friends, which was put an end to by the national secret police. A special case is that of Romanian diplomats accredited to the Soviet Capital in 1934. Their reports, now available in the Diplomatic Archive of the Romanian Foreign Ministry, show the extent to which the Soviet society could be perceived right there, on the spot.
More...Keywords: Turda (Torda); Mureș river; salt deposit; salt exploitation; salt transportation
Salt has been mined continuously at Turda, most likely since the Neolithic. The first information about the exploitation of salt in Turda originates from a geographical note in 1177 on the estate of the chapter (of the monastery of St. Martin) in Arad the hill of the mine, Aknahege was mentioned. Walloon miners (guests) were brought from Western Europe for the exploitation of salt in the north-east of Turda (at Băile Sărate [Sósfürdő] and Durgău–Valea Sărată [Dörgő-SósVölgye]). After the devastation of the Mongols in the north of Turda (1285), the guests (hospes) were relocated to Thorda Akna (in the Durgău–Valea Sărată area). According to documents from 1291, the miners were renewed the early privileges lost in the sacking of the burned fortress of Mykud of Kökényes-Radnót. The Turda Salt Administration (Salt Chamber) had in its heritage the two salt mines, the Salt Storehouse, agricultural lands and various other properties. Through the branch from Vurpăr (magh., Borberek; ger., Burgh-berg), and then through the storage from Decea, the salt was distributed on the Mureș River to the city of Szeged. After the liberalization of the salt trade by Louis II (1506–1526) on February 17, 1521, private individuals also got involved in the carriage of salt to Partium and inner Hungary (the tax still remaining with the monopoly on Mureș river). The monetary circulation on the territory of the city of Turda in the Arpadian and post-Arpadian period was closely related to exploitations and salt transactions.
More...Keywords: communism; anti-soviet; Romania; USA; 40s;
The author seeks to analyze in this study the response of a major international actor, The United States of America, to the national Romanian resistance against the communization/Sovietization process in 1945-1947. The conclusions are rather sad: the American policy, as far as the Romanian anticommunist resistance was concerned, consisted only in parachuting 13 Anglo-American agents in Romania, in adopting (pro forma) Resolution 5412 of the National Security Council for undercover, propaganda, and sabotage actions, and finally, in the CIA project code named Red Sox - Red Cap, attempting to create paramiIitary detachments made up of former members of the peasant parties in Hungary, Poland, and Romania.
More...Keywords: Antonio de Guevara; Monte Calvario; cross; tree; indigenous ruler
This work reveals the first, and perhaps the only, translation into Nahuatl of a fragment of the Libro llamado Monte Calvario (1545) by famous Franciscan Antonio de Guevara. One of the cultural references in one of the chapters in Guevara’s work was deemed very much related to the thought of the Mesoamerican culture. Because of that, indigenous scholars decided to translate it and incorporate it into a miscellaneous volume intended for education and devotion of the indigenous rulers. The idea of the tree – first as a figure of Christ on the cross and later as a paradigm of the good Christian ruler which is shown in the Nahuatl – encourages indigenous readers, for whom this work was intended, to conceive a new type of Christianity, where certain elements could be read and interpreted from the indigenous point of view, since in Mesoamerican thought the tree was also associated to the figure of the ruler (tlahtoani).
More...Keywords: Cold War; Romania; Soviet Union; United States of America; geopolitics; misperceptions; shocks theory;
The purpose of this article is to provide a view on the Romanian's communist regime activity on the international stage, in the context of the geostrategic rivalry between the U.S.S.R. and the United States. The author emphasizes the way the rivals perceive each other military, political, economic power, the grounds of confrontation and especially the two superpowers’ attitude towards their allies. Also, the research focuses on those events in which Romanian communist leaders took domestic and international policy decisions, in direct relation to the perception or error of perception of geopolitical developments arising from the geostrategic rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States of America.
More...Keywords: perspective; reality; ideology; communist regime; Stalin;
This world is dominated by one single reality, but everybody believes in his own view about existence. This lack of conformity lead, through the years, to many conflicts between peoples. Everybody undertook for their own points of view and when nobody retracted their conception, they began major encounters, considerable fights, significant struggles, great wars, in orders to decide which is the correct point of view about the world, which values are more important, which values are less important, which god is real, which one is an invention and so on and so forth. Throughout the centuries, only the strongest people decided which idea is a valuable conception and which idea is a horrible misconception. The weak always conform themselves to the respective authority, mavericks being usually, marginalized, expelled from the society, or even imprisoned and tortured to change their minds, to achieve the ,,right beliefs". In the 19th century, an impressive number of dictators came in power in one of the most important countries of Europe. Each one compelled their own rules, their own ideology and whoever tried to question their methods ended up in prison, being forced to correspond with the rules of the respective regime. In Nazi Germany, the authority decided that being a Jew is a crime. In Soviet Russia, the authority decided that being a bourgeois or kulak is a crime. Moreover, for the Nazi regime, the communist ideologies were utterly deficient, dissatisfactory and unacceptable. Also, for the Soviet regime, the Nazi ideologies were completely wrong, unfair, unjust and, also, unacceptable. Each and every one of them tried to inflict their own regime, their own rules, their own points of view. The end of the Second World War also marked the end of the Nazi regime, the Nazi ideology, the Nazi perspective about the perfect society. Unfortunately, the end of the same war marked the beginning of the communist regime, communist ideology and communist perspective about the perfect society in Eastern Europe. Countries like Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia were forced to adopt the Soviet system, the Soviet ideology, even the Soviet life style (characterized by poverty, famine and fear). Using their brainwashing techniques, the communists manipulated those societies (with different languages, rules and beliefs) to embrace the Marxist- Leninist ideology. Using the manipulation, they corrupted all the books, all the newspapers, all the textbooks in order to describe the communist ideology as the greatest ideology to have ever existed. Rewriting history was the key to introduce the new reality, but Stalin's henchmen couldn't have instituted the new regime in those countries without restraint and enforcement. Because of the violent and brutal methods used by communist tormentors, many dissidents had come to embrace the new regime. In conclusion, the reality is still unknown by the humanity. Every person has his own ideas and beliefs about the reality, but sometimes people might be forced to forswore them, being engaged to new ones which align with the new power or authority.
More...Keywords: database; institutional repositories; dspace; digital archiving;
Institutional repositories are products of information technology that ensure the increase of the impact and promote the teaching and research activities within a university or institution, by managing and distribution digital scientific documents. The main objective of the institutional repositories is to provide open access to the scientific research results of an institution, but in the case of universities, these can be used for educational purposes and the storage of educational materials.The article presents the researches for the achievement of a local institutional repository for the Department of Administrative Sciences of the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest, which will allow the publication of the license and dissertation works of the students. The implementation of such an institutional repository will be done using the Dspace platform. This is an open source software platform for universities, institutions and non-profit academic organizations. We also consider extending the institutional repository to the other specialties within the Faculty of Letters and developing it into a mini-e-learning platform that will allow students to have access to educational resources and to communicate with teachers, to complete questionnaires such as, for example, student assessment.
More...Keywords: Folklore; composers; evolution; choral creations; musical language;
The contemporary Romanian music, through the work of younger composers, presents itself, with a great diversity, trying to adapt itself to the terms imposed by the present time. The creation efforts, having a large or a small amplitude, aim at opening of a culture that has got its own interesting data and connecting it with the doubtless values required by the universal culture. Following the creation of acknowledged composers, young composers face a new competitiveness which offers the possibilities of active assertion. Through the present study we wish to show in the limelight examples of integration in what concerns the national elements of contemporary music, the assimilations of aspects concerning language noticeable in many of the parts which eclipse the musicological and compositional speech, principles of song construction that rebuilt traditional Romanian stylemes in a personal configuration, individual, of a modern type which finds itself in a number of frameworks during the last decades of Romanian music.
More...Keywords: myth; Faust; Mephistopheles; ontology; tragedy;
The ontological essence of the Faustian tragedy is the impossibility of being oneself without crossing out the general outline of ethics. This tragedy postulates both the being’s bidimensionality and the idea that God and Evil are two intertwined concepts, as Mephistopheles – the symbol of malignity in all its dimensions – acts as a moral trigger, in the sense that the bad consequences of his actions/words/proposals determine the salvation of Faust. Mephistopheles also obliges Faust to confront the limits of existence (physical, social, ethical). The knowledge – pleasure duality thus becomes the main feature of the Faustian character.
More...Keywords: mound; limes; roman road; cultural heritage; Roman Era;
The need to identify and present new or old information regarding the numerous mounds located in the southern part of Olt county and especially along the Alutan limes and the Romula Roman road (Reșca village, Dobrosloveni commune), made me complete this material in which I used both edited and unpublished information about these objectives and the landmarks I took into account are reference elements for the period of Roman occupation in southern Dacia, as part of the north-eastern border of the Roman Empire until the withdrawal of the imperial administration to the south of the Danube. The location of the mounds in the field, in the studied perimeter, could be achieved by a correlation between the geographical coordinates, the coordinates in Stereo 70 format, as well as the online maps, which were an extremely useful working tool, so that the position of the mounds could be established as accurately as possible, thus clarifying at least two aspects, the first revealing the situation existing in the 19th century and the second their current state, and equally the possible deviations concerning the position of these objectives in the field. I believe that the protection of these mounds would be beneficial for the national cultural heritage, and an inventory of them as soon as possible would be appropriate, given that, although people have known about them for a long time, no action has been taken so that we may complete information on them. An action of this kind can be put into practice by implementing a project in which institutions and individuals can be brought together, possibly with powers in the field, and the necessity of launching such a project is imperative, because of the great danger of the voluntary or involuntary disappearance of these objectives.
More...Keywords: constitutional import; the Belgian Constitution of 1831; the Romanian Constitution of 1866; foreign prince; modernization and political independence; modern liberal constitutionalism;
This article has as its starting point the genesis of Romanian constitutionalism. Developed according to the Belgian model, the Constitution of 1866 allowed the birth of a democratic system of government and consolidated the autonomy of Romania, in the context where, after the abdication of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, there was an inherent need for governmental stability. However, the decision to adopt a prestigious constitutional model was guided by the idea of international legitimacy. The predominantly liberal character of the Belgian Constitution of 1831 influenced the process of drafting fundamental laws in several European states, not only in Romania (Greece, Italy, Prussia, etc.). The constitutional import process is inevitable, but extremely difficult and rarely impossible. The inevitability of this process stems from the fact that overarching constitutional ideas and mechanisms are generally limited. This type of transfer occurs when constituent assemblies face a particular problem and choose to focus on already functioning constitutions.
More...Keywords: Buridava necropolis; human bones; Dacians;
The archaeological research from 2016-2021 allowed us to identify in Buridava some types of archaeological structures that can also be found in other sites belonging to the classic Geto-Dacian era and which largely correspond to the discoveries of Dumitru Berciu from 1961-1992.The discoveries were made on terrace VIII, the last one on the western side of the bushy hills of Cosota. Looking back and benefiting today from multiple sources of analysis (LIDAR, aerial photography, etc.) we are convinced that all eight terraces and the Acropolis served starting from the last quarter of the 1st century BC and throughout the 1st century BC as a necropolis/sacred area.Our study is based on the analysis of the archaeological context; forensic anthropological analysis; serological analysis; X-ray microtomography (µXCT) and 3D reconstruction; SEM and EDS analyses; X-ray analysis, EDXRF spectrometry;The bones analysed are of human nature, a fact that is supported by their morphology, as well as by the serological and physical examinations that were carried out. There are a few exceptions where, due to the extremely small dimensions, further clarifications could not be made.The analyses focused on 1457 cremated fragments and various component parts of the bones of the human skeleton were identified.
More...Keywords: juvenile delinquency; legal and moral norms; intellectual disability; affective disorder; educational models; positive socialization;
Both on national and international levels, we are witnessing a phenomenon of ascending trend of juvenile delinquency. Generally, it is accompanied by the aggravation of social danger and the increase of violence committed by the juveniles. The timeliness and relevance of this phenomenon are justified by the intense character of juvenile delinquency and its mechanisms of production and manifestation. Its negative effects cannot be denied or underestimated by society. Juvenile delinquency has a series of specific features and notes, distinct for one society or another. The features are derived from the socio-economic and cultural conditions of that society, as well as from the conception, sanctioning and treatment of crimes committed by adolescents and young people. Knowing the theory of the delinquent phenomenon can be a source of elaboration of prevention strategies with connotations on diminishing the consequences and effects among young people.
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