ROMANIAN REVIEW OF POLITICAL SCIENCES AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, no.2/ 2010

CONTENTS

 POLITICAL IMAGE, THEORY AND PHILOSOPHY

Carmen Burcea, L’immagine della Romania sulla stampa del Ventennio (II)

Jaouad El Habbouch, Celebrating the Populist and Caricaturing the Official 

Layachi El Habbouch, Beyond Western Humanism: History Materialised, Resistance Relocated, and the Alternative Translated

 Sarroukh Abdenbi, Conversation in Modern Social and Political Theory

Vanja Savic, Dialectic of Enlightenment at the Crossroads between Modernism and Postmodernism

 Viorella Manolache, Modern versus Postmodern: Romania and the East-West Rhetoric

 POLITICAL SCIENCE REVISITED

 Antoine Heemeryck, Légitimation Philanthropique du Capitalisme Postcommuniste en Roumanie

 Lucian Jora, Cultural Diplomacy Today- New Steps Towards a Research Agenda

 Josef Karl, Political Object or Subject? The DFDR and its Relationship to the Romanian State

 Henrieta Anişoara Şerban, The Rhetoric of „Good Governance” and the Importance of Transparency – Their Present Interest 

 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

 Irina Stoica, EU, UN and Swedish Environmental Leadership

Laura Bădescu, Portugal between the Political and Literary Discourse

 Željko Mirkov, Impact of Global Crisis on The Republic of Serbia

SCIENTIFIC LIFE

REVIEW OF REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEWS

 THE AUTHORS

SOMMAIRE

 D’ IMAGE POLITIQUE, DE LA THEORIE ET DE LA PHILOSOPHIE

Carmen Burcea, L’immagine della Romania sulla stampa del Ventennio

Jaouad El Habbouch, Célébrer le populiste et caricaturant les officiels

Layachi El Habbouch, Au-delà de l’humanisme occidental: histoire matérialisée, résistance relocalisée et l’alternative en traduction

Sarroukh Abdenbi, Conversation en théorie sociale et politique moderne

Vanja Savic, Dialectique des Lumières à la croisée des chemins entre le modernisme et le postmodernisme

Viorella Manolache, Moderne vs. postmoderne: la Roumanie et de la rhétorique Est-Ouest

 

SCIENCE POLITIQUE SOUS ENQUÊTE

Antoine Heemeryck, Légitimation Philanthropique du Capitalisme Postcommuniste en Roumanie

 Lucian Jora, Aujourd’hui, la diplomatie culturelle-nouvelles étapes vers un agenda de recherché

 Josef Karl, Objet politique ou le sujet? Le DFDR et ses liens avec l’Etat roumain

Henrieta Anişoara Şerban, La rhétorique de la «bonne gouvernance» et l’importance de la transparence – de leur intérêt actuel

RELATIONS INTERNATIONALES

Irina Stoica, UE, ONU et suédois et la gestion politique des problemes de l’environnement

Laura Bădescu, Le Portugal entre le discours politique et littéraire

Željko Mirkov, L’Impact de la crise mondiale sur la République de Serbie

 

VIE SCIENTIFIQUE

 REVUE DE REUVES

 COMPTES RENDUS

AUTEURS

POLITICAL IMAGE, THEORY AND PHILOSOPHY

 L’IMMAGINE DELLA ROMANIA SULLA STAMPA DEL VENTENNIO

( II )

CARMEN BURCEA

 

Abstract. This study investigates the aspects related to the image of Romania in the Italian press during 1922-1943. Published in two consecutive issues, the purpose of the study is to answer to several questions: Who writes about Romania? Which is the typology of the publications where we find information on Romania? Which are the ascendant/descendent curves of the Italian interest for Romania? Which are the recurrent themes of the articles that have as thematic Romania? How does the Direction for the Foreign Press within the National Propaganda Ministry function as “image laboratory”?

Key words : image, press, diplomacy, Romania, Italy

 

CELEBRATING THE POPULIST AND CARICATURING THE OFFICIAL

   JAOUAD EL HABBOUCH

 

 

Abstract. Michael Moore’s visual document-Fahrenheit 9/11- is not only a statement that flouts from within the United States suppression of individual liberties but also a statement through which Moore seeks to undo the very premises upon which the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan and invasion of Iraq were based. His populist view has the power to countermand the “good” versus “evil” binary system of representation upon which the United States discourse on terror typically relies to legitimate its practice. Michael Moore’s 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11 is a visual and narrative tour de force that critiques everything from the controversial conditions under which George W. Bush assumed the US presidency to President Bush’s handling of his so-called war on terror.

Key words: Michael Moore, Fahrenheit 9/11, “good” vs. “evil”, discourse on terror

BEYOND WESTERN HUMANISM: HISTORY MATERIALISED,RESISTANCE RELOCATED AND THE ALTERNATIVE TRANSLATED

    LAYACHI EL HABBOUCH

 Abstract: The various uses of the notion of history within the scope of western humanism have diverged along the lines of common sense documentation, scientific description, narrative representation and discursive manipulation. While history is viewed by the common sense approach as a set of hard-and-fast facts, which are authorised by the transparency of historical documents themselves, it takes on the configuration of an objective discipline, with the surge of instrumental rationalism characteristic of the Enlightenment, that is thought to be able of formulating historical truths through the efficient use of a scientific method that guarantees their validity, authenticity and reliability. This is why it has become urgent to focus on the  textual circulation of the cultural other in discursive  situations of cultural encounters with the west, the cultural other  as an agent of representation whereby alternative discourses of difference to Orientalism can be discovered, negotiated and interrogated beyond the power hierarchies of Occidentalism as an instance of countrdiscourse.

          Key words: Common sense, postcolonial, Enlightenment, Renaissance, Occidentalism, cultural other.

 

CONVERSATION IN MODERN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THEORY

 SARROUKH ABDENBI

 

                                                             “For to be free and to act are the same.”   Hannah Arendt

Abstract. Jürgen Habermas, Richard Rorty and Hannah Arendt developed challenging ideas about conversation in modern social and political theories.   Habermas’s shift of concern is clear from hermeneutical theory at first, to rationality, following in the lead of enlightenment claim to a universal reason and principles, is aimed to support his arguments for the dignity and the right of man through communicative and conversational activity. Rorty’s radical pragmatism and relativism led him to attack any universal principle whether it calls itself reason or truth or principle. In What is Freedom? Hannah Arendt’s argument is in line with the idea of conversation in the above sense, but different in that her approach to it is genealogical.

Key words: Jürgen Habermas,  Richard Rorty, Hannah Arendt, social and political theory

DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT AT THE CROSSROADS BETWEEN MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM

 VANJA SAVIC

 

Abstract. The purpose of this essay is to examine the major text of early critical theory, and critical theory in general, namely Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment (1973) and its relative affinity to postulates of modernism i.e. postmodernism in social sciences respectively. To do that, this essay will focus on the (related) categories of rationality (Reason) and the human subject (the Self) as they have been expounded in Dialectic of Enlightenment and in modernist/postmodernist paradigms (Barry 2002, Eagleton 1986, Sarup 1993, Waugh 1992). The attempt to establish points of convergence i.e. divergence from the postulations of these two paradigms will show that the text of Dialectic of the Enlightenment is situated at the very crossroads between modernism and postmodernism.

Key words: Dialectic of Enlightenment, Enlightenment Self, Enlightenment Rationality

 

MODERN VERSUS POSTMODERN:

ROMANIA AND THE EAST-WEST RHETORIC

      VIORELLA MANOLACHE

 

Abstract. This study approaches that, from a postmodern point of view, history sheds skins and regenerates so that it can recommend itself to the general public as (historio)graphy; as (un)conscience vindicates itself as the subject of creativity and life. The benefice for this exuviating action on history is represented by the threaded stylistic unity, between interior and exterior, the transparent profile of a double there – under which traces are crammed (as in a hypermarket of history), crowd in strategies without objectives, undeterminable. Briefly, a code of the simulacra is installed – with terms, notions, concepts – offered as treatment, supplement, existential brand, and panacea. The physiognomy of the new Eastern reality from the vernacular area related to the period after December 1989, “virused” by postmodernity (even if, apparently, it absorbs as well some well preserved traditional elements), remains a relatively new construct, that corresponds to different realities, as a consequence of the ideological, technological, social, psychological, esthetic, philosophical, etc. mutations, after our – de facto! – Integration in the intellectual and economic West European community.

Key words: Modern vs. postmodern, East – West rhetoric, post-totalitarianism, geographical limits, traditionalism vs. Europeanism, centre vs. periphery

POLITICAL SCIENCE REVISITED

 

 LÉGITIMATION PHILANTHROPIQUE DU CAPITALISME POSTCOMMUNISTE EN ROUMANIE

 ANTOINE HEEMERYCK

 

« Voler en grand et restituer en petit, c’est la philanthropie. »

LAFARGUE P., 1887.

Abstract. This article tries to shed lights the role of the philanthropic foundation in the process of moral legitimization of the business class in Romania. In this aim, I analyse two contrasted examples of entrepreneur: on the one hand, a businessman from the establishment and on the other hand an outsider.

Key words. Romania, businessmen, philanthropy, moral legitimization

CULTURAL DIPLOMACY TODAY- NEW STEPS TOWARDS A RESEARCH AGENDA

 LUCIAN JORA

Abstract. This study launches and responses to the following questions: What distinguishes Cultural Diplomacy form Propaganda and what would be the demarcation line which separates them? When Cultural Diplomacy degenerates in Propaganda and with which effects? What is the new environment and variables which impose today a new approach towards cultural representation? How can we measure the effectiveness of Cultural Diplomacy?

Key words. Public Diplomacy, Cultural Diplomacy, Lobbyism, International Relations

POLITICAL OBJECT OR SUBJECT? THE DFDR AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE ROMANIAN STATE

 JOSEF KARL

 

 Abstract. Taking into account the development of the relationship between the DFDR and the Romanian state it becomes obvious that the aim of the founders to develop the DFDR into a sovereign voice of the Germans in Romania towards the German and Romanian governments was only partly fulfilled with regards to Bucharest. Although the DFDR was the government’s exclusive partner with reference to its citizens of German nationality, this did not provide only advantages for the Germans.

The DFDR and the remaining Germans have mainly remained to be a political object of others in many political aspects and that they could not consistently develop sufficient means to show independent profile to become a political subject.

Key words: Political Object, Political Subject, DFDR, minority organization

THE RHETORIC OF „GOOD GOVERNANCE” AND THE IMPORTANCE OF TRANSPARENCY – THEIR PRESENT INTEREST

 HENRIETA ANIŞOARA ŞERBAN

 

Abstract. This text concisely maps the main co-ordinates and directions of analysis for the investigation of the concept of „good governance”, underlining the present interest for the concept. Starting from the definition and the principles of good governance the author emphasizes the important role of the (forgotten?) principle of tranparency. Without transparency (and accountability), the ideal of „good governance” remains closer to a rhetorical exercise and farther from the path of „good governance” relevant for democratization. The role of media in maintaining transparency is emphasized in the article, too.

Key words: good governance, openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness, coherence, transparency, democratization

 

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

 

EU, UN AND SWEDISH ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP

 IRINA STOICA

 

Abstract. The Swedish contribution to the environmental issue-building in the UN framework and then the EU represents a unique case of issue formulation in international agenda-setting and coalition-building by a nation state around a precise matter of contention the overuse of ecological resources emerging onto the international agenda at the beginning of the 1970s. The factors which allow Sweden to act as a successful actor on the EU environmental stage, employing normative persuasion, also predispose Sweden to favorably act on the world stage. Sweden’s interests, of course, serve to link the role of power and the role of ideas together in a catalytic symbiosis of normative influence. For it is the content of these ideas, which represent Swedish interests – those interests deemed salient by the national public and expedient by political actors – which are then sold to other political actors – this time international – in a process that empowers Sweden.

Key words: EU and UN framework, EU environmental stage, environment coalition building, national private interest aggregation, specific policies, Sweden

PORTUGAL

BETWEEN THE POLITICAL AND LITERARY DISCOURSE

LAURA BĂDESCU

 

Abstract: Romanian diplomacy has been represented in Portugal by great cultural personalities: Lucian Blaga end Mircea Eliade. Obviously enough, the political discourses of these cultural personalities have a pragmatic grammar obeying to diplomatic reasons which pertain to the moment when they were uttered. We shall consider the speeches belonging to each personality mentioned above, analysing their rhetoric, pointing out and contextualising the cultural, esthetic and mentality codes.

At the same time, we shall be interested in each particular literary speech, in an attempt to indicate to what extent is achieved the rhetorical transfer from their own work, which is not subjected to politics, towards the diplomatic speech. We believe this is the exact direction of transfer – from the creative vocation towards the diplomatic one, all the more because each of them, when being appointed ambassador, already belonged to Romanian intellectual elite.

Key words: diplomat writers, diplomatic discourse, diplomatic/ private correspondence, rhetorical figures

IMPACT OF GLOBAL CRISIS ON THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

 ŽELJKO MIRKOV

 

Abstract. This practical article approaches the impact of global crisis on the Republic of Serbia, having as a conclusion the fact the it is expected that in the upcoming period of the global financial and economic crisis will have more spillover effects on the Serbia economy. The announced privatization of the large state owned companies probably will not be realized this year because of low costs that they can achieve in market. Serbia biggest problem and macroeconomic risk is the already mentioned balance of payment which is in huge deficit. Global crisis was not the best time for liberalizing imports from EU, but Serbia showed a clear signal that is fully committed to become an EU member.

Key words: global financial and economic crisis, macroeconomic risk, framework of measures.