Ion Iliescu Research Articles

Valeska Bopp-Filimonov and Martin Jung, eds. Kaleidoskop Rumänien. Einblicke in die aktuelle Vielfalt des interdisziplinären Faches Rumänistik

Valeska Bopp-Filimonov and Martin Jung, eds. <i>Kaleidoskop Rumänien. Einblicke in die aktuelle Vielfalt des interdisziplinären Faches Rumänistik</i>

Negative Campaigns between Strategy and Political Opportunism in Romania. Case Study: Ion Iliescu’s Electoral Campaigns in the First Post-Communist Decade

Abstract In an electoral competition, campaign teams choose strategies that can most easily decide their own candidate’s victory. The present study aims at an incursion into the field of negative campaigns, having two components: the debates of specialists in political science on the subject and the way in which this direction was reflected in the electoral campaigns in Romania during 1990–2000. The article diachronically follows the evolution of Ion Iliescu during the four electoral rounds, highlighting the degree to which the negative campaign was imposed as the main strategy, against whom it was carried out, what topics were promoted, and to what extent it determined the success or failure of the candidate. In the analysis, the first part presents the views of sociologists, historians, and specialists in communication and political science, whereas the case study on the Romanian political environment is based on the written press of the period and the statements of politicians, reflected through the media.

체제 전환기 루마니아의 정치, 경제, 사회적 화해와 상생

After the 1989 revolution, new politicians in the transition period who had to adapt to unfamiliar political atmosphere shared three visions for the future of the country. The first was the restoration of pre-communist history and politics, the second was the declaration of liberalism, and the last was the realization of a social project and political design for this purpose. However, the political situation in the 1990s was grim due to the deterioration of the National Salvation Front (Frontul Salvării Naţionale) and the unrest in the university square, and the new world was slowly approaching because of the old communists. On one hand, Romania in transition had the dual goal of creating representative democracy systems and practices, and establishing a free market economy system on the other hand. This double transformation was premised on the introduction and settlement of neoliberal ideology according to policy decisions between ‘representative democracy’ and ‘market economy’, and social consensus on democratization and transition to a market economy. A successful transition was a task given to president Ion Iliescu, who had to lead at a major turning point in 1990~1996, but the historical reality was far more complex and difficult than could have been anticipated and programmed. From president Emil Constantinescu, who made the first democratic transfer of power in 1996, to Prime Minister Adrian Năstase in 2002, the political declarations and experiments of ‘the end of the transition’ and ‘the beginning of a new era’ were repeated over and over again. Society in the transition had to abandon the paternalistic and authoritarian mindset left behind by the communist ideology and dictatorship of the past. The most important change is the transition from a monolithic system such as a dictatorship to a plural system. Free access to mass media, the opening of the free movement right, and the promise of restoration to Europe have led to a radical acceleration of social change. In that sense, EU accession in 2007 can be regarded as the end of the transition to the post-communist regime. Romania was officially linked with Europe again politically and economically, as it had been before socialism. This long historical process suggests how the experience of communism affected Romanians’ worldview and how real their integration into Europe was.

Trăgători și Mistificatori: Contrarevoluția Securității în decembrie 1989

Trăgători și Mistificatori: Contrarevoluția Securității în decembrie 1989

The 2000 Romanian Presidential Elections – between Populism and Europeanism

"In November 2000, ten years after the fall of the communist regime and the organization of the first free elections, the Romanian population was called to decide on the future president of the country. This was the first poll that took place after the transition between power and opposition, which took place in 1996, but also in the context of a serious economic crisis with considerable effects on living conditions, which marked the activity and political destiny of PNŢCD. The elections, especially the second round, proved to be representative not so much from the perspective of political options, but especially regarding the future of the country: open to Euro-Atlantic structures or isolated, oriented towards the former Soviet space. These visions were personalized by the two candidates, Ion Iliescu and Corneliu Vadim Tudor, and the present article analyses the electoral mechanisms the two tried to use in order to promote their platforms within a Romanian society marked by the economic recession, but also by a major moral and identity crisis. Keywords: Elections, Electorate, Presidentialism, Europeanism, Populism, Crisis "

From “Original Democracy” to Euro-Atlantic Integration: Foreign Policy Issues during the Romanian Presidential Campaigns (1990–2004)

Abstract The article analyzes from a diachronic point of view the way in which foreign policy issues evolved during the presidential elections in post-communist Romania. In this chronological demarcation, the author opted to start with 1990, when Ion Iliescu,the first president after the revolution, promoted a form of isolation of the country, proposing a local model of democracy building, and to end with 2004, when the NATO and European Union (EU) accession became realities assumed by all political parties. During this 14-year period, the presidential election was the type of vote that caught most people’s attention, and foreign policy gradually found its place among the topics of interest, along with economic reform and the fight against corruption. Romania’s exit from the “grey zone” was slow and involved several stages, such as the abandonment of the conservative discourse of Ion Iliescu and its replacement with a Euro-enthusiast one, the assumption by political parties of the “spirit of Snagov,” and the reconciliation with neighboring states. The main primary sources of the study are electoral programs, debate shows, and especially articles from the press of the time, such as Adevărul, România liberă, Evenimentul zilei, Ziua, România Mare, and so on.

A ‘Historical Reconciliation.’ The Romanian‑Hungarian Treaty of 1996

This article analyses Romania’s foreign policy during the transition from communism to democracy, between 1990 and 1996, through the lens of its relations with Hungary. These were conditioned by the historical background, antagonistic feelings best describing public opinion attitudes in the two states. The analysis considered the situation of the Hungarian minority in Romania and the way in which inter-ethnic tensions (such as the street fights in Târgu-Mureş in March 1990) influenced diplomatic cooperation, as well as the way in which the political class positioned on this issue. The study focuses on the adoption of the ‘Treaty of understanding, cooperation and good neighborliness concluded between Romania and the Republic of Hungary,’ a condition for the acceptance of the two countries in the negotiations for accession to NATO and the European Union. The tortuous process that led to the signing of this document was analyzed through the lens of specialized literature, but also by reference to some decision-makers at that time, such as the US ambassador to Romania, Alfred H. Moses, or President Ion Iliescu. As regards the reactions of politicians and the media in both states to the signing of the treaty, in the context of the Romanian electoral campaign that was taking place at that time, sources from the written press were used, Evenimentul Zilei and Adevărul being the most widely read dailies.

Emotions in the political discourse of Romania. A corpus-driven analysis of multiword expressions

Emotions in political language use can have considerable repercussions on a society, especially on the expression of solidarity and ostracism, which are closely connected to the emotions of trust and aversion. Driven2 by a sub-corpus of spoken presidential texts from 1992 to 2004, this analysis constructs on the basis of multiword expressions emotion profiles of the political actors. To do so, it draws from Robert Plutchik’s wheel of emotions3 and the Romanian Emotion Lexicon (RoEmoLex)4 and focuses on hints for trust and aversion. The findings indicate a high degree of expressions of trust while aversion is nearly non-existent. Moreover, an increase of emotions during the three presidential terms of Ion Iliescu and Emil Constantinescu is remarkable from a diachronic perspective and constitutes a transition from the topics of internal stability and security to global cooperation and responsibility.

Leadership Styles. Qualitative Analysis on Romanian Presidents

Leadership style has received significant attention in the management literature, but the topic has been studied also by political scientists, sociologists, psychologists, and anthropologists. The authors of this paper provide a general framework for the systematic study of leadership, and then apply various typologies to all Romanian presidents who have servedat least onefull term. After defining leadership and leaders, summarizing leadership principles and features, and examining some leadership studies, four Romanian presidents (Nicolae Ceausescu, Ion Iliescu, Emil Constantinescu, and Traian Basescu) are categorized taking into account their performance, but also the constraints and opportunities resulting from the environment and political context. The succinct qualitative analysis presented in this paper is based on the framework and taxonomy provided by Roger-Gerard Schwartzenberg, Richard E. Neustadt, and James David Barber, with focus on Fred I. Greenstein’s qualitative study, who examined various presidents in terms of six qualities: proficiency as a public communicator, organizational capacity, political skills, policy vision, cognitive style, and ability to manage emotions and turn them to constructive purposes.

Romania—Between Continuity and Change

This essay presents a critical account of the social and political history of postcommunist Romania from the time of the violent overthrow of Nicolae Ceauşescu’s communist dictatorial regime in 1989 to the writing of the essay in 1995. King Michael chronicles the processes through which power in Romania following 1989 was quickly seized by representatives of the former Communist Party and the communist secret police (Departamentul Securităţii Statului or Securitate). Led by Ion Iliescu, a former communist leader and one-time protégé of Ceauşescu, a powerful group of politicians came to dominate the National Salvation Front, an originally anticommunist political organization that held power following the coup. Through manipulation of the media and voting processes and imposition of a flawed new constitution, Iliescu ensured the ascendancy of his Party of Social Democracy during the first half of the 1990s. The essay critiques the course of events and laments the faltering pace of both economic and political reform resulting from the stagnant Romanian political situation and the persistence of former communist leaders in government. Additionally, although not as its central focus, King Michael argues that a restoration of the Romanian monarchy could help to stabilize and improve the country’s political fortunes.

From Source Collections to Peer-Reviewed Journals: Romanians Write the Holocaust

On 13 June 2003, Romania’s president Ion Iliescu caused an international uproar when he stated publicly that it was ‘unjust to link Romania to the persecution of the Jews in Europe’ because his cou...

Landmarks of Corporate Social Responsibilities in Romania

Currently, the image of a company, its corporate identity and culture have become of fundamental importance. Involvement in the community is necessary for a company that wants to ensure not only commercial success but also the respect in which society operates. Donations, sponsorship and corporate social responsibility are forms that companies can interact with the community in which it operates. The difference between a company's social responsibility and philanthropy is that the former involves the development of a strategy for community involvement and partnerships in which the company has in turn gain, while in the case of philanthropy, NGO strategy is oriented towards solving the problems of beneficiaries. Corporate Social Responsibility is a concept increasingly more present in Romanian business society. Obviously, the main driver in this process have established multinationals that have done a transfer of organizational culture locally. Like almost every important concept, undergo accelerated assimilation needs, has become more like a fashion initially, than as a result of full awareness of the needs. As expected in an economic and social framework rather immature and unstable social responsibility in Romania was valued more for its commercial valences than the ethical. In a market that was becoming increasingly competitive, players quickly discovered the potential of this dimension in the construction process of the image and reputation building, as the prerequisite for commercial success in the short and medium term (Hawkins, 2006). I want to emphasize from the outset that, the complexity of processes and phenomena referred to, the impact they have on the living standards and health of the population, Sectoral Strategies for Sustainable Development, which will be launched today, concern equally to state authorities at central and local level, and each of Romanian citizens. Therefore, it is natural to train as many social partners in public debates on sectoral strategies launched during the session, so that they integrate with society's expectations Romanian, medium and long term, says President Ion Iliescu in opening allocution of First Session on Strategy of Sustainable Development of Romania “Horizon 2025” (Ion Iliescu, 2004).

Orientation of the Voters in the Presidential Elections in Romania 1990-2009

After the change of the political regime in 1989, Romania has returned gradually to democracy. This return is illustrated by the electoral process in which the presidential elections play an important role. The first elections after December 1989 represent the exception, the elections being won, detached, in the first round, by the candidate of the party which secured an absolute majority in the legislative (Ion Iliescu, the National Salvation Front), all other elections providing a winner after the second round. The victories were shared between the center-left and the center-right candidates, two decades of witnessing several electoral alternance in power (as in the case of parliamentary elections). It also requires the continuity in the electoral preferences of certain regions (the Old Kingdom voting, in general, for the centre-left regions and the capital have voted consistently with the right candidates. Between these consistency elements, the Hungarian electorate registers oscillation of voters between the center-left and center-right.

The Neo-Communist Regime of Present-Day China

The first goal of this article is to define the neo-communist regime as a specific type of undemocratic post-communist construct. Three case studies analyzing the regimes led by Zhan Videnov in Bulgaria, Ion Iliescu in Romania, and Alyaksandr Lukashenka in Belarus are used to identify its main characteristics. The second goal is to show that the present-day Chinese regime falls into this category. As such, it does not represent an intermediate or transitional phase. This ‘hard’ neo-communist regime is the final stage of the Chinese post-communist transition. In the foreseeable future, it will most likely preserve its present characteristics.

Communism for the Twenty-first Century: The Moldovan Experiment

For most of the first decade of the present century, Moldova was governed by the Party of Communists of Moldova, led by Vladimir Voronin, who displayed impressive political skills as the president of the republic and party leader. In office, the party engaged in a political reorientation towards Europe in 2004–5 and an ideological transformation in 2008, yet the party remains a superficially reformed, non-transmuted communist successor party. During eight years in office, 2001–9, it led a semi-consolidated authoritarian regime similar to the neo-communist constructs of Ion Iliescu in Romania and Zhan Videnov in Bulgaria. The crisis of 2009 weakened the party, however, with defections of leading communists to other parties. Moldova has thus returned to a situation of ‘pluralism by default’ and a hybrid political regime, in which the communists, though weakened, remain a potent political force.

Democracy and Memory: Romania Confronts Its Communist Past

All postcommunist societies face major dilemmas in confronting their traumatic past. A functional democracy cannot be based on lies, denial, and amnesia. Romania's exit from communism has resulted in a hybrid quasi-democratic regime, with former communists like Ion Iliescu maintaining influential positions and opposing a genuine break with the past. In 2006, President Traian Basescu established a Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania; the author of this article was selected as its chair. The commission's Final Report was the basis for President Basescu's condemnation of the communist dictatorship as illegitimate and criminal. Offering a comparative perspective, the author focuses on the debates that led to the creation of the commission, the commission's activity and the fierce attacks on it by nostalgic communists and xenophobic nationalists, and the impact of moral justice on Romania's democratic political culture.

The Final Report on the Holocaust and the Final Report on the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

On 22 October 2003, with the initiative of Romania's president Ion Iliescu, the International Commission for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania (ICSHR) was set up. Nobel laureate for peace and American writer of Romanian origin Elie Wiesel was appointed as its president. In spring 2006, with the initiative of Romania's president Traian Băsescu, the Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania (CPADCR) was formed. Vladimir Tismăneanu, the American political scientist of Romanian origin, became its president. Both commissions were established with the purpose of producing a final report on the two forms of totalitarianism in Romania: the extreme right totalitarianism between 1940 and 1944, and the extreme left totalitarianism between 1944 and 1989. Both commissions rested on legal and ethical grounds and they addressed Romanians' expectations and dilemmas linked to their recent traumatic history.

Democratising Capitalism? The Political Economy of Post-Communist Transformations in Romania, 1989-2001 by Liliana Pop (review)

382 SEER, 85, 2, 2007 one might expect, Poland's newest entrepreneurs tend to be people with strongpersonalmotivation or some historyof family initiativeand prosperity. They also tend to support capitalism,privatization,democracy and Poland's entryto the EuropeanUnion. Some entrepreneurshave yet to grow out of the practices that were necessary for survivalduring Communist times, namely, informalityof contracts and corruption, but ethical standardsare rising, in part as a result of the work of the professionalbodies that have developed since I989. The authors make substantialuse of factor analysis and regression, and relatetheir findingsto wider sociologicaldebates. To this extent, Open for Businessprobably makes a contribution to the sociology of the post-Communist transformationof Centraland EasternEurope. However, the readeris offered little information about the scale, nature and structure of the enterprises whose founders were interviewed, or about the extent to which they are typical of Poland's entrepreneurialclass as a whole. Chapter six's regional analysis of factors likely to affect the emergence of entrepreneurshipis too limited to add significantlyto our understandingof the topic;and only a small proportionof the informationcollected in the interviewsappearsto have been presented.To this extent, the book will be of much less interestto economists and political scientists,let alone politicians and journalists, for all of whom relevance is claimed in the Preface, than it might otherwisehave been. Arbroath ANDREwH. DAwsON Pop, Liliana. Democratising Capitalism? ThePoliticalEconomy of Post-Communist Transformations in Romania, I989-200I. Europein Change.Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 2oo6. Xii +208 pp. Notes. Glossaryand biographies.Appendices. Bibliography.Index. ?55.?0. THIS is a timely work of revisionism. Liliana Pop challenges the view that post-I989 Romania witnessed state capture by former Communist officials allied to elements in the formerintelligenceservices.Her book, demonstrably based on a PhD thesis,showshow a new systemof open politicsand competitive economics emerged after I989. She characterizesthe events of 1989 as a genuine popular revolt and wastes no time with explanations purportingto show that well-placed elements in the Communist system used them as a springboardto remain dominant forces in the pluralistcontext. She insistson the Communist regime's 'considerablecontribution to the modernisation of the country' (p. I7). The successorregime under Ion Iliescu was an independent actor 'concerned to protect the interest of consumers' (p. 79) despite events like the unmentioned Caritas pyramid banking scandal. Iliescu's's National Salvation Front was very much a victim of the successiverampages by coal-minersin I990 and I99I which led to a period of renewed isolationfor the country.The slow pace of reformwas due not so much to decisionstaken by Iliescu and his circle but to 'structuralconstraints'and especially to the role of transnationalagencies with free-marketagendas. Nicolae Vtacaroiu, Iliescu'sprime ministerfrom I992 to I996 at last receivessome vindicationfor REVIEWS 383 his policy of 'economic gradualism' which is compared favourably to the IMF-inspired'shocktherapyof I997' that appearsto have blighted the record of the only government opposed to Iliescu in office before 2004. Insteadof overlookingthe distributionof stateassetson an informalbasisto political insiders,Dr Pop should have graspedthe nettle and argued that this form of crude redistributionof public goods encouraged the growth of a new authentic capitalist class. She reminded us that no serious commitment to reform was likely from bureaucratsunless 'they can maintain and enhance their life chances' (p. 2I). This was true for the 'undergroundelite', her pithy termfor the secretpolice, and it is perhapsa blessingthat a professionalgroup that had attracted some of the brightest graduates in the I970S and ig8os moved into capitalism with such alacrity in the early I99os. There were spectacular banking failures which caused the state losses of $4.i billion in missingcreditsbetween 1992 and 2004, but Dr Pop points out that corruption was a feature of transitionsin all of the former satellite states. She is instead criticalof the privatizationrecord of the centre-rightgovernmentsof the late I99Os. Radu Sarbu, head of the state privatizationagency of the time is the only person in the book whom she describesas 'currentlyunder investigation' for dealings during his period in office (p. I55). It is perhaps time for Iliescu's post-Communiststo be seen in a balanced light. Ion Iliescu 'was an advocate for moderationin politicalcompetition, supportedthe rulesof democracyand sought to act as a facilitatorfor inter-partycooperation during...

The End of Postcommunism in Romania

The 2004 parliamentary and presidential elections saw the defeat of the former communists who ruled Romania for most of the period since the fall of communism. The outcome of the presidential election surprised many, with outgoing president Ion Iliescu replaced not by the favored Prime Minister Adrian Năstase of the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD), but by Bucharest mayor Traian Băsescu of the opposition Justice and Truth Alliance (DA). The country now has a democratic and pro-European government; the question is whether this new government will be able to break with the semi-authoritarian habits of its postcommunist predecessors and tackle persistent problems such as pervasive corruption and lack of transparency and accountability.

A New Historian?

-Your mother is a judge. It's her job to put a line through the past by passing sentence. I'm a historian. For me the past is a gold mine of surprises and possibilities.-A gold mine?…A dunghill is more like it.-Dunghills have their surprises too.President Ion Iliescu [of Romania] has just announced the formation of an international expert commission charged with studying the history of the Holocaust in Romania between 1937 and 1951.Historians are not judges. A historical commission is not a court of law.