Democratic Transition and Disillusionment: the Case of Romania
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DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION AND DISILLUSIONMENT: THE CASE OF ROMANIA By Anca Mihaela Pusca Submitted to the Faculty o f the School o f International Service of American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In International Relations Chair: A/ Mustapha Kamal Pasha role Gallaher M l Vladimir Tismaneanu jjUk’ CO GtV At,.—- Dean of the School of International Service >X t '2l/oG 2006 American University Washington, D.C. 20016 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3234284 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ® UMI UMI Microform 3234284 Copyright 2006 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To N oel Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION AND DISILLUSIONMENT: THE CASE OF ROMANIA By Anca Mihaela Pusca ABSTRACT The post-communist transition in Romania has been a period rife with high hopes and expectations as well as strong disappointments and disillusions. These disillusions have too often been confused with either political apathy or direct reactions to corruption, insecurity and poverty, thus resisting an in-depth examination of the phenomena of disillusionment as an altogether separate concern. This project tries to rectify that by providing a redefinition o f the concept of disillusionment in light of the loss of certain strong illusions. Equating the ideology of both communism and capitalism with a particular set o f social, political and economic illusions, propagated through different sets of both state and market mechanisms, this project focuses on how some of those illusions were built, maintained and later lost and grieved. The points of entrance for this examination are the 1989 Romanian Revolution along with its contested ideals and illusions, the period immediately following the Revolution marked by the emergence of so- called civil society institutions and the illusions surrounding their role in the democratization process, and finally, an examination of present Romania, fifteen years into the transition, reflecting back on the shock of the transition and its effects on the Romanian landscape - city and ruralscape - and the Romanian people. The birth, development and later loss o f each o f these illusions marked the beginning o f a redefinition o f the relationship between state and society, and more importantly, the relationship between present, past and future. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are several people who made this project possible and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their effort, patience and encouragement. I would first like to thank my committee members, who have been incredibly supportive throughout the conceptualization and writing process: my chair, Prof. Mustapha K. Pasha, for his dedication to research and critical thinking that have inspired me and pushed me to do better as well as for his dedication to this project and my work that has allowed us to work together over several oceans and miles of land apart; Prof. Vladimir Tismaneanu for sharing with me his invaluable experiences and knowledge of Romania and for helping me in the field research process; Prof. Carole Gallaher, for her unconditional moral support and very sharp advice. I would also like to thank Prof. Patrick Jackson, Prof. Julie Mertus, Prof. James Mittleman and Prof. Paul Wapner for their guidance and support throughout my PhD years. Finally, I would also like to show my deep appreciation to all the people that facilitated my field research process as well as those who were kind enough to share with me their experiences related to the Romanian revolution and the period immediately following. Among them are: Mircea Mihaies, Nelu Laslau, Nicolae Badilescu, Lorin Fortuna, Sanda Adrian, Claudiu Iordache, loan Savu, Gabriela Adamesteanu, Gabriel Andreescu, Radu Filipescu, Andrei Cornea, Rodica Palade, Alin Teodorescu and last but not least Thomas Kleineger. This project would not have been possible without the support of my department - the School o f International Service at American University - and my colleagues. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT...................... :.....................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................................................iii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................1 2. AN ANATOMY OF DISILLUSIONMENT.........................................................8 3. SHOCK AND TRANSITIONS........................................................................... 49 4. THE ILLUSIONS AND DISILLUSIONS OF THE ROMANIAN REVOLUTION: THE CASE OF THE TIMISOARA REVOLUTION ARIES... 94 5. THE ILLUSION AND DISILLUSION OF CIVIL SOCIETY: THE CASE OF THE GROUP FOR SOCIAL DIALOGUE........................................................... 153 6. REPRESENTING ILLUSIONS AND DISILLUSIONS: A VISUAL NARRATIVE OF THE ROMANIAN TRANSITION TO CAPITALISM........199 7. CONCLUSION: BETWEEN PAST AND FUTURE - ROMANIA NOW.. .242 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................................ 248 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The transition from communism to capitalism in Central and Eastern Europe has been much discussed in the social sciences, mainly in the context of post cold-war studies, regional and comparative studies, studies on revolutions and EU studies. The subject can hardly be said to be understudied, which begs the question of why yet another study on transitions? The justification lies perhaps within the particular framework of analysis, which uses the concept of disillusionment as its main entry point, as well as the particular understanding of the transition as a period in which not only the political and economic structure change but, more importantly, the social structure and elements of social cohesiveness. With this in mind, this study focuses less on the nature of major reforms, and more on the social implications of those reforms and the way in which they were implemented. The transition is thus viewed as a period of negotiation between two different kinds of illusions/political ideals: in the case of Central and Eastern Europe, the ideal of communism - now lost, yet not completely - and the ideal of capitalism - still to be discovered and properly understood. The main point of concern for this study is how these negotiations take place at different levels of society and at different points in time: how these negotiations started before and during the 1989 Revolutions, how they were continued within what we call civil society, how the average individual deals with the 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 ‘shock’ of these negotiations and how these negotiations become visible in the cityscape as well as the ruralscape of transitioning economies. While different analyses of the transition rely on the concept of disillusionment - or other similar concepts such as political apathy, anomie, pessimism or alienation - to point the difficulties of adapting to the institutions of liberal-democracy and the free- market, as well as the emerging pathologies of the transition - increases in crime and corruption, drug abuse, poverty, emigration and a general sense of loss and confusion - few of these analyses attempt to provide a more comprehensive understanding of what disillusionment is, beyond its effects. The concept plays a particularly important role in the post-revolutionary descriptions of Central and Eastern Europe, having been imbued with a series of meanings: from the disillusionment of dissidents and intellectuals, to the disillusionment of the poor and the disillusionment of the emigrant. This literature has linked the term, for the most part, to particular transformations in the region, post 19891, choosing to ignore to a large extent other important analyses in the social sciences that provide a more comprehensive understanding of disillusionment as particularly linked to modernity and a series of important transformations taking place within it. This study seeks to uncover some of those forgotten understandings and link them to current