Studia i Analizy Studies & Analyses

Centrum Analiz Społeczno – Ekonomicznych

Center for Social and Economic Research

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Jacek Cukrowski, Radzislawa Gortat, Piotr Kazmierkiewicz

Moldova: Assessment of Civil Society and Democratic Institutions

Warsaw,November 2003

The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily reflect the views of Freedom House or USAID.

The paper was prepared within the advisory project entitled “: Assessment of Civil Society and Democratic Institutions,” sponsored by Freedom House and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The publication was financed by ComArch.

Key words: Moldova, , civil society, democratic institutions.

© CASE – Center for Social and Economic Research, Warsaw 2003

Graphic Design: Agnieszka Natalia Bury

ISSN 1506-1701, ISBN: 83-7178-310-8

Publisher:

CASE – Center for Social and Economic Research 12 Sienkiewicza, 00-944 Warsaw, Poland tel.: (48 22) 622 66 27, 828 61 33, fax: (48 22) 828 60 69 e-mail: [email protected] http://www.case.com.pl/

Contents

Abstract...... 5

Preface ...... 6

1. Moldova - Country Description ...... 7 1.1. Geographical and Historical Context ...... 7 1.2. Political Background...... 9 1.3. Social Issues...... 10 1.4. Economic Performance...... 12

2. Development of Civil Society and Democratic Institutions in Moldova ...... 13 2.1. Institutional Development...... 13 2.2. Civil Society Organizations...... 15 Political parties...... 15 Non-governmental organizations ...... 17

3. Features of Civil Society and Democratic Institutions in Moldova...... 22 3.1. Participation of youth in civic life...... 22 3.2. Public awareness campaigns and ...... 25 3.3. Freedom of media...... 27 3.4. Think tanks...... 31

4. Summary and Conclusions...... 33

References ...... 36

Annex ...... 37

List of interviews ...... 41

Jacek Cukrowski

Jacek Cukrowski received his M.Sc. degree in Systems Engineering in 1985, Ph.D in Computer Science in 1990, Postgraduate Diploma in Sociology and Politics in 1993, Ph.D. in Economics in 1995. In 1997 he defended Habilitation Thesis in Economics. In 1992 – 1999 he worked as a researcher in the Economics Institute in the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic. Since 1998 he has been a docent of Charles University (Czech Republic), and Professor of University of Finance and Management (Poland), since 1997 with CASE Foundation.

Radzislawa Gortat

Radzislawa Gortat has Ph.D. degree in political science. She is the Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Political Science of the Warsaw University, the Lecturer at the Higher School of Humanities in Pultusk, Poland, and the Senior Research Fellow at the CASE Foundation. She participated in a number of CASE research and technical assistance projects in countries of the former USSR. She is the author of several publications related to political and constitutional reforms, elections and democratization process in former communist countries.

Piotr Kazmierkiewicz

Piotr Kazmierkiewicz holds a Master degree from Central European University in Budapest (1997) and a Bachelor degree from Southern Oregon University (1996) in Political Science. His interests include comparative European migration policy and the East European foreign policy. He served as an international policy fellow at the Open Society Institute (2001) and a consultant at McKinsey and Company (2000, 2002). He is the author of the report, Turning Threats into Opportunities: Impact of the Expansion of Schengen Acquis on the New Borderlands (Institute of Public Affairs, Warsaw, 2003), and a co-author of the study, Managing Migration: the Experience of Poland in Light of European Directives (Migration Policy Forum, Warsa