Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna DOTTORATO DI RICERCA Cooperazione Internazionale e Politiche per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile International Cooperation and Sustainable Development Policies Ciclo XX Settore/i scientifico disciplinari di afferenza: Storico, politico e sociale SPS/13 DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE IN ROMANIA: from Socialism to EU Membership Presentata da: Mirela Oprea Coordinatore Dottorato Relatore Prof. Andrea Segrè Prof. Stefano Bianchini Esame finale anno 2009 - 2 - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY With their accession to the European Union, twelve new countries - Romania among them - (re)entered the international community of international donors. In the history of development aid this can be seen as a unique event: it is for the first time in history that such a large number of countries become international donors, with such short notice and in such a particular context that sees some scholars announcing the ‘death’ of development. But in spite of what might be claimed regarding the ‘end’ of the development era, development discourse seems to be rather vigorous and in good health: it is able to extert an undeniable force of attraction over the twelve countries that, in a matter of years, have already convinced themselves of its validity and adhered to its main tenets. This thesis collects evidence for improving our understanding of this process that sees the co-optation of twelve new countries to the dominant theory and practice of development cooperation. The evidence collected seems to show that one of the tools employed by the promoters of this co-optation process is that of constructing the ‘new’ Member States as ‘new’, inexpert donors that need to learn from the ‘old’ ones. By taking a case-study approach, this thesis gathers data that suggests that conceiving of the ‘twelve’ as ‘new’ donors is both historically inaccurate and value-ladden. On one hand, Romania’s case-study illustrates how in the (socialist) past at least one in the group of the twelve was particularly conversant in the discourse of international development. On the other hand, the process of co-optation, while being presented as a knowledge-producing process, can also be seen as an ignorance-producing procedure: Romania, along with its fellow new Member States, takes the opportunity of ‘building its capacity’ and ‘raising its awareness’ of development cooperation along the line drawn by the European Union, but at the same time it seems to un-learn and ‘lower’ its awareness of development experience in the (socialist) past. This is one possible reading of this thesis. At a different level, this thesis can also be seen as an attempt to account of almost five decades of international development discourse in one specific country – Romania – in three different socio-political contexts: the socialist years (up to the year 1989), the ‘transition years’ (from 1989 to the pre-accession years) and the membership to the European Union. In this second reading, the thesis seeks to - 3 - illustrate how – contrary to widespread beliefs – before 1989 Romania’s international development discourse was particularly vivid: in the most varied national and international settings President Ceauşescu unfolded an extensive discursive activity on issues pertaining to international development; generous media coverage of affairs concerning the developing countries and their fight for development was the rule rather than the exception; the political leadership wanted the Romanians not only to be familiarized with (or ‘aware of’ to use current terminology) matters of underdevelopment, but also to prove a sense of solidarity with these countries, as well as a sense of pride for the relations of ‘mutual help’ that were being built with them; finally, international development was object of academic attention and the Romanian scholars were able not only to reflect on major developments, but could also formulate critical positions towards the practices of development aid. Very little remains of all this during the transition years, while in the present those who are engaged in matters pertaining to international development do so with a view of building Romania as an EU-compliant donor. - 4 - TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 (RE)SEARCHING FOR A DISCOURSE: METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL APPROACH - 13 - 1.1. Research Questions and Hypothesis - 13 - 1.2. Research Data and Methodology - 16 - 1.2.1. Critical Discourse Analysis - 17 - 1.2.2. Interviews - 27 - 1.4.3. Participatory Methods - 41 - 1.2.4. Concluding Remarks - 50 - 1.3. Research Context - 51 - 1.4. Discourse and Development - 60 - 1.4.1. Development: Not Fads, but a ‘Way of Thinking’ - 60 - 1.4.2. Discourse: the Magical Property of Language - 69 - 1.4.3. Enlarging the Path: Discourse Analysis and the Study of Development - 74 - CHAPTER 2 ROMANIA’S SOCIALIST YEARS: POLICY AND DISCOURSE TOWARDS THE GLOBAL SOUTH - 79 - 2.1. Socialist Romania’s Policy towards the Global South - 79 - 2.1.1. Romania as a Socialist and Developing Country - 79 - 2.2.2. Policy Expansion and Extension of ‘Aid’ - 97 - 2.1.2.1. Romanian Sources on the Romanian Aid Program - 102 - 2.1.2.2. Foreign Sources on the Romanian Aid Program - 110 - 2.1.3 Policy S tagnation with Ever Stronger Pro-development Rhetoric - 112 - 2.1.4. Over-extension, Withdrawal and Marginalization - 116 - 2.1.5. Concluding Remarks - 120 - 2.2. Romania’s Discourse for International Development - 121 - 2.2.1. The Romanian Concept for International Development - 125 - 2.2.1.1. Romanian Scholars on International Development - 126 - 2.2.1.2. Ten Romanian Proposals for International Development - 153 - 2.2.1.3. Concluding Remarks - 192 - 2.2.2. President Ceauşescu’s International Development Rhetoric - 194 - 2.2.2.1. What is the Context Conveying? Context Analysis - 204 - 2.2.2.1.1. Type of Cmmunicative Event - 205 - 2.2.2.1.2. Purpose of the Communicative Event - 209 - 2.2.2.1.3. Setting of the Communicative Event - 211 - 2.2.2.1.4. Participants to the Communicative Event - 213 - 2.2.2.1.5. Background Knowledge and Assumptions - 215 - 2.2.2.2. What the Text Conveys? Text Analysis - 218 - 2.2.2.2.1. Romanian People’s Solidarity. Discursive construction. - 219 - 2.2.2.2.2. Self-identity Descriptions: Romania as a ‘Friend’ of the Developing Countries - 224 - 2.2.2.2.3. Activity Descriptions. What is Romania Doing for the Developing Countries? - 229 - 2.2.2.2.4 Goal-Description and Sources of Legitimacy - 230 - 2.2.2.2.5. Linguistic Means of Ceauşescu’s Discourse: the Yoke Metaphor - 232 - 2.2.2.3. Concluding Remarks - 236 - 2.2.3. Talking Romanians into International Development: Scînteia Articles - 237 - 2.2.3.1. Scînteia Commentators on International Development - 244 - 2.2.3.3. The Drought – Finer Analysis of One Scînteia Article - 252 - 2.2.3.4. Concluding Remarks - 260 - - 5 - CHAPTER 3 NEW MEMBER STATE. NEW DONOR. NEW DISCOURSE. - 263 - 3.1. From ‘Donor’ to Recipient and Back Again in 17 ‘Transition’ Years - 263 - 3.1.1. Romanian - South Relations after 1989: a Steep Decline - 264 - 3.1.2. Romania – a Recipient of Western Aid - 269 - 3.1.3. Back to Donorship: First Steps - 279 - 3.2. EU and Romania’s Development Discourse: Direct and Indirect Influence. - 282 - 3.2.1. European Union’s Direct Influence: the Progress Reports - 284 - 3.2.2. European Union’s Indirect Influence: Building Capacities for Development Cooperation - 297 - 3.3. Romania’s National Strategy for Development Cooperation – A Complying Discourse? - 309 - 3.4. Romanian NGOs as Advocates for Development Cooperation - 318 - 3.4.1. Experience of Romanian NGOs’. But whose moral and humanitarian concerns? - 319 - 3.4.2. The Romanian Platform for Development Cooperation: a Brick in a Pyramid - 329 - 3.5. Concluding Remarks - 359 - CHAPTER 4 A TALE OF KNOWLEDGE AND IGNORANCE - 363 - 4.1. Research Findings and Conclusions - 363 - 4.2. Summary of Contributions - 369 - 4.3. Directions for Further Research - 370 - 5. BIBLIOGRAHY - 371 - ANNEXES - 409 - - 6 - TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1 - Romania's Treaties of Friendship and Cooperation with the Developing Countries __________ - 23 - Figure 2 - Romania's Economic Growth Compared to Other Countries _____________________________ - 86 - Figure 3 - Romania's Per Capita National Income Compared to Other Countries _____________________ - 87 - Figure 4 - Romania's Trade with Non-Communist Developing Countries: 1960-1978 _________________ - 91 - Figure 5 - Ceausescu's Major Diplomatic Tours of Sub-Saharan Africa, 1972-1983. __________________ - 98 - Figure 6 - President Ceausescu's Diplomatic Agenda - September 1977 ____________________________ - 99 - Figure 7 - Romanian Credits Granted to Africa and Latin America _______________________________ - 105 - Figure 8 - Bilateral Commitments of Capital to Non-Communist Developing Countries: 1970-1978 ____ - 111 - Figure 9 - Scînteia's Sixth Page: An Example ________________________________________________ - 241 - Figure 10 - Romania's Foreign Debt through the '90s Compared with GDP Growth__________________ - 271 - Figure 11 - Total Aid by All Donors Compared with EU Aid: 1994-2004__________________________ - 272 - Figure 12 - Romania towards the European Union: Main Steps __________________________________ - 276 - Figure 13 - PHARE Funding Committed to Romania - 1990-1995 _______________________________ - 278 - Figure 14 - Priority countries for NMS' development cooperation ________________________________ - 312 - - 7 - - 8 - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Above all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Professor Stefano Bianchini of the University of Bologna, for his constant support and patient supervision. I know I would not be able to write today this word of ‘acknowledgement’ if it were not for him. So ‘Thank you!’. I would also like to thank Anita van Dijk Delhaas, national director of World Vision Romania. She is a model and motivator and she offered me a much appreciated professional opportunity that was at the heart of this thesis. I owe much to Valentin Burada of CSDF Romania and Rodica Novac of ADO SAH ROM, Lada Parizkova and Christine Bedoya of the TRIALOG project, and many other Romanian and NMS colleagues, who spent hours after hours with me, debating, analyzing or simply talking about development cooperation in Romania and the NMS.