Untitled-1
altera 26/27
YEAR XI. 2005
Contents
In memoriam Adrian Marino- 3
IDENTITIES
IN DIVERSITY
Victor Neumann
Communism
and Nationalism in East-Central-Europe:
The
Totalitarian Regime of the Postwar Romania
in
the Identity Theory Perspective- 5
Lacking
– unlike its East-Central European neighbours – a solid left-wing tradition, Romania was for a long time unable to draw up the proper criticism
against
the communist totalitarian regime. While Moscow was criticizing Stalinism and
Budapest was protesting against its own dictatorship, Romanian communist leader
Gheorghiu-Dej was
pretending that destalinization had already taken place in
Romania avoiding thus responsibility for Stalinist ideology and its implementation in Romania. He was also pleading for the right to assert national communism. Due to political police surveillance, Marxist thinkers were unable to
initiate disidence and even less to influence masses.
Romanian
intellectuals did not notice that Marxist ideas themselves could be
employed against political terror. Gheorghiu-Dej and later Ceauşescu were masters in manipulating nationalist ethnicism to support their own regime. The
grassroot Romania did not enjoy an alternative political way of thinking as a result
of
the lack of a genuine relationship between the intellectual elites and the
masses.
The nationalist dimension was to many Romanian intellectuals the sole tenet opposed to communism, that is why even today various historical facts bear a dif
ferent meaning to the Romanian majority and the Hungarian, German and Jewish minorities. Such a difference in meaning is also reinforced by the larger
East-
European background where national identities asserted themselves by denying
the right to existence of the neighbouring identities.
Even after the
Yougoslavian tragedy most of the East-European intelligentsia do not
perceive the harmfulness of the ethno-national discourse and do not realize
that in
order to assume the European identity they have to reassess the concept of
nation.
Metamorphosis
of the Austrian Identity- 14
In the aftermath
of the dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy the Austrians did
not have a national identity of their own, their selfidentification being that
of a
part of the German nation. Beginning with 1934, opposing the ideas of national-
socialism, the Austrians sought to shape a distinct identity, but had it not
been for
the Allies, their strivings would have failed as they were not only victims of
the
nazi system but also participants to it.
During the postwar
period, the „Austrian consciousness” has been shaped by
the country’s neutrality and by its trying to move away culturally and economically from Germany
Today Austria is
facing the European integration challenge, a process where it
could play the part of reference point for the Eastern European countries and
thus
become the main winner of a possible Central-European „regional federation”. At
the same time, this could be the right way to strengthening Austrian identity.
Mykola
Riabchuk
Ambiguous ’Borderland’:
Ukrainian Identity on the Crossroads of West and East- 53
This
paper aims to explore the Ukrainian identity-in-the-making as an important
factor of European both geopolitical and cultural self-identification. The
author
argues that, since 19th century, there have always been and still are two
different
options for Ukrainian national and territorial elites: to embark on a ‘Central-
East European’ project of nation-building or to further benefit from some regional role in a more general project of ‘Greater Russian’, or Soviet, or East
Slavonic empire-building.
The first option
would inevitably mean the full integration of Ukraine into Euro-
Atlantic structures and, probably, a gradual transformation of neighboring Russia into a ‘normal’ and basically European nation-state. The second option
would
certainly mean the revival of some sort of Eurasian’ empire that has always
been
strongly biased if not completely hostile against the West. Thus, Ukrainian
path
and pace of development would largely determine where the Europe’s eastern
border is set and, even more importantly what kind of a border it might be.
Cristina Gheorghe
The Identity of the
European Human Being
with
Denis de Rougemont- 72
The
beginning of the Denis de Rougemont’s Europe-oriented career dates from
the postwar period, when his exile to America opens a new perspective on the
Old Continent: what he had previously seen as a conglomerate of various
entities reveals itself to
be a whole. The solution to the problems Europe faced in the
aftermath of Second World War depended on two elements: the European human
being and federalism, that are inseparable in de Rougemont’s view.
Striving to outline a typology, de Rougemont speaks of three categories: a
free,
but unengaged human being having his correspondent in a democratic regime
tending to anarchy; the totally engaged human being (the political soldier)
that
completely lacks freedom and has his correspondent in a totalitarian regime;
and the person, a human being that is both free and engaged and that has his
correspondent in a federalist regime.
Starting from the
differences between the Western Europeans and those in the
other areas of the continent or people on the other continents, de Rougemont
ends up by assessing the differences between Europeans themselves, differences
that had bred conflicts among them for centuries. Nevertheless, these very conflicts gave the solution needed for surpassing differences: federalism, the
economical, political, social and cultural system that has as its goal (and also
the
capacity) to make contradictions acceptable as a normal and inherent state of
affairs.
De Rougemont thus
sensitizes the European individual to achieve the European
dream, the united Europe once imagined by Dante, Rousseau, Voltaire or Briand,
and which has
come true only in part up to now...
CASE STUDY
Valér Veres
Ethnic Identity vs.
National Identity in a Minority Position.
The Case of the
Hungarians in Transylvania- 87
National
identity is a vaster concept than any other form of collective identity
including ethnic identity, and it has two manifestations: the Western-European
one based on the notion of fatherland and citizenship and the Eastern-European
one based on the notion of culture and ethnic origin. The essential difference
between a minority group and an ethnic one is mirrored in the significant
differences in the field of power and social prestige.
The field
research conducted among Hungarians in Transylvania revealed that
few of them define their Hungarian identity referring directly to the criteria
of
ethnic origin. The most representative factor seems to be cultural national
identity based on self-identification, which ideologically speaking is not built on
an
ethnic criterion, originating in birth, but on the Hungarian culture, on
identification with their political representation organisation (The Democratic Alliance
of
the Hungarians in Romania) and with national symbols, with socializing within
the Hungarian educational system and environment.
Mara Mărginean
The Stolen
Identity of a Transylvanian Town- 102
The
paper here tells the story of an urban space, Hunedoara, against the background of industrialisation and territorial planning policy of the communist
authorities. The identity of Hunedoara relies on two pillars: its history and its
economical dimension (it hosts an iron and steel plant).
The study focuses
on the beginning (1947-1949) and ending (1980-1989) periods
of the communist regime. While the first period is devoted to building a
gardentown for workers, its districts being placed as far as possible from the
industrial
area in order to avoid their pollution, the last period witnesses the easy and
cheap, even if not desirable solution of demolishing the old, historical centre
of
the town in order to make room for block of flats. An urban process that had
set
out by building houses ended up by demolishing individual dwellings.
Urban planning embodies the ideology of the time: the collective, be it the
working
class or simply the masses, should replace the individual. Local urban identity
is
destroyed by the actions of central bureaucracy; across the country the outcome
is
the levelling of the urban Romanian landscape that stamps also the individual.
ANALYSES
Ovidiu
Pecican
”J’accuse!”: Tom Gallagher’s Version- 115
The
paper assesses Tom Gallagher ’s latest book, Theft of a Nation. Romania
since Communism, which signals the failure of the transition process in Romania. The volume does not confine itself to analysing without bias the recent
history of this country, it takes a clear stand: Romania’s past of foreign
oppression
cannot entirely account for its incapacity to relaunch itself. The book calls
for
Romanian citizens and their political elites to take responsibility to admit
the
internal causes of failure; it is a manifesto in favour of civicism that can
build up
a democratic society and support the rule of law.
Gallagher ’s
criterion in assessing the present Romanian society is not at all inquisitorial or utopian, the standard is not an ideal governance, but it is a
criterion of the maximum that could have been achieved by good decision-makers and
citizens (but, unfortunately Romania has never had them up to now).
Quite notable is Gallagher ’s effort to go beyond a critical analysis by
providing
solutions never before considered, although perfectly feasible. This effort is
directed almost exclusively toward the political sphere, but such an option is
legitimate as long as in postcommunist Romania political will is the one that creates
economical, social and cultural realities.
On the other
hand, Gallagher does not hesitate to note that the West has its share
of responsibility in Romania’s backwardness as it sometimes too easily credited
controversial actions and persons of the Romanian political elites.
Ioan Codruţ
Lucinescu
Federal Aspects in
the European Union- 123
The
essay is an overview of the 20th century history of the European idea as well
as an assessment of the sustainability of the European Union.
After the First
World War the European idea is overshadowed by the rise of the
national states, but the third decade of the century witnesses Aristide
Briand’s
project whose importance lies in the fact that it brings together the
theoretical
and political activities. Suppressed during the ’40s, the concepts circulated
in
the project resurfaced in the postwar period. Set up by The Hague Congress in
1948, the European Movement promoted federalism as the best alternative to the
nation-state, that was considered responsible for two world wars. Drawing from
the American and the German experience, the federalist project envisaged a twotier distribution of political sovereignty: European and national.
Neofunctionalism
is another form of federalism and it relies on the idea that economical
integration has a spill-over effect and leads to integration of other domains, too.
The
Maastricht Treaty
signed in 1992 is the epitome of all the previous achievements,
but it is for the European Constitution to consolidate the European
construction.
The future of EU depends on three elements: the evolution of the international
landscape, EU’s ability to reorganize itself in order to cope with the problems
generated by its enlargement and the candidate countries’ capacity to meet the
demands of their accession.
DOCUMENT
Assembly of European
Regions:
Declaration on
Regionalism in Europe- 138
Council of Europe:
Draft European
Charter of Regional Self-Government- 146
Opinion of the
Committee of the Regions
on the ’Reccomendation of the Congress of Local and Regional
Authorities of Europe on a European Charter of Regional
Self-Government’- 156
Conference
of European Ministers responsible for local and regional
government: Helsinki Declaration on
Regional Self-Government- 162
Recommendation 156
(2004) on the ’Council of Europe
Convention on Regional
Self-Government – progress of the draft’- 169
Resolution
186 (2004) on the ’Council of Europe Convention on
Regional Self-Government – progress of the draft’- 172
Gábor Kolumbán
The Chances of Regionalism in
Romania- 175
The
study here strives to pinpoint the main causes that hinder the evolution of
regionalism and regionalisation in Romania. Under the cover of the concern for
the integrity of the national state there is a centralist will to power of the
political
elites that prevents any form of decentralisation. The present regions for
development are designed only to absorb EU funding, but their structure and way of
functioning prevent the emergence of genuine regional projects.
Misunderstanding
of the notion of the region: while at the European level, Romanian counties pretend to be the regional tier, Romanian legal provisions define
the counties as entities of local public administration. Lacking the political,
institutional and community components, neither the regions for development (that
have no administrative rights), nor the counties can be considered regions.
The discourse on
regions is fallaciously ethnicized: it is ignored that the cultural
administrative
competencies of autonoumous regions across Europe are given to
territorial communities and not to ethnic ones.
The weak
regionalism in Romania is also due to the fact that the economical
elites are not aware of the effects of globalisation.
A regional
development policy without regions is a typical East-European catch.
Given all the reasons above, Romanian regionalists are in for a long and exhausting march with no end in view unless they manage to draw the interest of
the political and economical spheres.
TRANSYLVANIAN CONVERGENCIES
Paul Philippi
Present
and Prospective Reflections
on
the Deportation of the Germans- 194
Sixty
years after the deportation of the Germans from Transylvania, the author
ponders on the need to pass on the duty of commemoration to the young generation since the peoples that lose their historic memory also lose their future.
The
terrible experience of deportation should be processed in a way to lead to a
better coexistence of ethnic groups and not to embittering them.
While striving
for the proper recognition and condemnation of the deportation,
the German community should not confine itself to deeming itself as a powerless victim only, it
should also reassess and acknowledge its not having taken a stand
against the national-socialism. The German community should become aware of
its role as a constructive ethnic and politic minority that enjoys collective
rights
and is also ready to take on collective commitments.
A constant
dialogue is needed both with the Romanian majority and the other
minorities in Romania, especially the Hungarians, as well as with the political
and social decision-makers in the German-speaking countries.
FACES OF EUROPE
Christoph
Pan
The Role of Education in
Connection with Endangered Minorities- 194
Even
though minority protection has recently experienced a proportionally great
push in development throughout Europe, there are risk factors wich in
particular
threaten the smaller minorities. These are: insufficient demographic size
paired
with dispersed settlement, a lack of political organization, linguistic
fragmentation and retarded linguistic development.
While demographic
size is an independent variable and therefore cannot be immediately changed, the remaining risk factors can be influenced through measures
of
minority policy
among which a special role is played by education. With the assis-
tance of
education the lack of direct communication brought about by a situation of
dispersed settlement can be remedied through media forms of communication, the
minority-specific difficulties of political
organization can be corrected and the ability
to organize can be improved, the danger of linguistic fragmentation and
the reverse in linguistic development can be combated more easily
DEBATE
The Regional Dimension of the European
Integration- 198
Although
Romania has adopted the community acquis, it cannot effectively implement it as its county structure inherited
from the communist regime is the result of an
atomizing and dictatorial thinking. The regional idea, promoted mainly
within
Transylvania, should be seen as a tool for development, for solving problems,
and
not for secession, for creating new problems.
Regionalism
contributes to participatory democracy to involving citizens into decision-making, and it is high time citizens themselves tried to get this process
started.
Modern Romania relies on regionalist traditions, but how can they be
highlighted?
A regionalist reconstruction of Romania
would be useful as it would make the country’s
european integration easier and, at the same time, it could provide a
solution to the
Hungarian minority living here. Out of the three types of regionalism – cultural,
political and economical – Romania has
chosent to employ only the latest and only in order to be able
to absorb the European structural funds. A matter to hinder a regional movement is the legal impossibility
of setting up regional parties in Romania,
all the parties now extant reproducing the centralist structure.
The Romanian state cannot be reformed, what is truly needed is a recreation of
the
state. In the Constitution the borders, the national anthem, the national flag
are
given more consideration than the citizens. The diversity the Romanian state
needs
not so much intercultural tolerance as a solidarity of identities.
RESTITUTIO
Ferenc
Csortán
Non-Islamic Communities within
the Ottoman Empire- 231
The
principle underlying the Ottoman Empire was religion not ethnicity (just like
in European states), but Islam had a different relationship with other
religions, it
not only tolerated them, it strived to protect the other two religions endowed
with
the Bible as it did not consider them „pagan”.
Christian and
Jewish communities enjoyed a religious and cultural institutionalised
autonomy status: the millet that enabled them to preserve their identity and,
later, to
fight for their own statehood. In response, the Empire tried to reform either
by recalling its forgotten traditions or by borrowing from the Western societies
patterns.
Nevertheless, a
bitter historical experience prevented the political elites of the
post-Ottoman countries to admit that there had been such forms of autonomy,
historically validated, that had not promoted separatism and unsafety, but, on
the contrary contributed to increasing stability and trust.
ECUMENICA
John Anderson
Justifying Religious ’Privilege’
in Transitional Societies- 249
This
paper is part of a wider study of how societies undergoing political transition processes handle the issue of religious diversity. Here the focus is on
the
ways in which religious agencies, states or other political actors justify the
granting of a special legal or constitutional status to traditionally dominant
religious
institutions or the application of restrictions on the activities of religious
minorities. Five main families of argument are noted, rooted in appeals to the
dominant
church’s majority or national status, their potential role as moral guardians,
the
need for protection against unfair competition, the need for social and
political
stability, and nationalistic appeals based on assertions about national
distinctiveness and the right of countries to develop their own models of church-state
relations. Of these the latter category of nationalistic argument is especially
strong
in the three Orthodox countries under consideration.
ALTERA PARS
Andi Mihalache
Controversial Identities.
We and the Germans in the 1949-1965
Historiography- 270
The
territorial and ideological split of Germany into capitalist FRG and communist DRG made it difficult for the Romanian historiography to tackle this
elusive
entity from a Marxist perspective. East-German historians themselves included
into their representations only those social categories that either had opposed
or
had been victims of the nazi system. Nevertheless, the everyday life of these
social classes never made the object of East-German historical studies; they
dealt
exclusively with protests and of social-democrat and later communist elites.
The
impossibility to establish two identities – a socialist one in the East and a
capitalist one in the West – for one nation led to a Marxist rigidity coupled with
constant prosovietism. In the Romanian historiography the short nazi period
was the quintessence of the whole German history and a symbol of the decadence
of the Western civilization. Except for the Turks, the Germans are the nation
opposed to which Romanians most readily defined themselves. The role the German
world played in the modernization of Romania was deliberately ignored. Rem-
nants of this
anti-Western view are still to be found in the Romanian mentality but
this time they
are oriented against Americans.
REVIEW
Ovidiu Pecican
Levente Salat,
Smaranda Enache (editori):
Relaţiile
româno-maghiare şi modelul de reconciliere franco-german
(Levente Salat, Smaranda Enache (eds.): The Romanian-Hungarian
Relationship and the French-German Reconciliation Model)- 280
La Editura PRO
EUROPA au mai apărut:
Heinrich
Henckel, Sistemul elveţian
John P. Frank, Modele de guvernare
democratică
Ezra Solomon, Economia într-o
societate liberă
Chester Finn, Politica într-o
societate liberă
Chester E. Finn Jr.,
A preda democraţia
Howard Cincota, Ce
este democraţia?
Binder Pál, Az erdélyi fejedelemség
román diplomatái
Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, Pan-Europa
Willy Zeller, Breviarul
economiei de piaţă
Ionel Ion, Mariana Costin-Ion, Aritmetica.
Aritmétika
Ionel Ion, Mariana Costin-Ion, Számtan.
Aritmétika
Andrei Roth, Naţionalism
sau democratism?
Roth Endre, Nacionalizmus vagy
demokratizmus?
Hamar, J.& Sárkány-Kiss, A. (red.), The
Maros/Mureş River Valley. A study of
the geography
hydrobiology and ecology of the river and its environment
Hamar, J.&
Sárkány-Kiss, A. (red.), The Criş/Körös Rivers' Valleys. A study of
the geography
hydrobiology and ecology of the river and its environment
Hamar, J.&
Sárkány-Kiss, A. (red.), The Someş/Szamos River Valley. A study of
the geography,
hydrobiology and ecology of the river and its environment
Hamar, J.& Sárkány-Kiss, A. (red.), The Upper Tisa
Valley.Preparatory proposal
for Ramsar site
designation and an ecological background Hungarian,
Romanian,
Slovakian and Ucrainian co-operation
Sárkány-Kiss Endre,
Hamar József, Sîrbu Ioan,, Starea ecologică a râului
Mureş/ A Maros
folyó ökológiai állapota
Sárkány-Kiss Endre, Sîrbu Ioan, Kalivoda Béla (red.), A
Körös-medence
folyóvölgyeinek
természeti állapota/Starea naturală a văilor din Bazinul
Crişurilor
*** Fragmentarium.
Judaica-Christiana-Islamica
*** România şi minorităţile. Colecţie de documente
*** Învăţămîntul pentru minorităţile
naţionale în România
*** Drepturile persoanelor deţinute
şi închise în Penitenciarul din Tîrgu Mureş
*** Respectarea drepturilor lingvistice în Tîrgu Mureş
*** Respectarea drepturilor copilului în şcolile din Tîrgu Mureş
*** Educaţia în societăţile
multietnice din Europa Centrală şi de Est
*** Administraţia locală în
comunităţile multietnice din Europa Centrală şi de Est
*** Rolul minorităţilor în
relaţiile transfrontaliere şi internaţionale din Europa
Centrală şi de
Est
*** Minorităţile şi mass-media în Europa Centrală şi de Est
*** Administraţie locală. Autoadministrare locală (vol. I-IV)
Revista Altera
1.
Autonomie
şi autodeterminare
2.
Drepturi
individuale. Drepturi colective
3.
Drepturi
individuale. Drepturi colective
4.
Drepturile
omului şi religia
5.
Etnic. Naţional. Multinaţional
6.
Federalism
7. Federalism şi reconciliere
8.
Federalism şi devoluţie
9.
Regionalism
şi regionalizare
10.
Regionalism
şi/sau descentralizare
11.
O Europă a regiunilor
12.
Multiculturalism
13.
Multiculturalism
/ Interculturalism
14.
Drepturile
lingvistice ale omului
15.
Drepturile
lingvistice — drepturi fundamentale
16.
Universităţi multiculturale
17/18. Identităţi culturale periclitate
19.Regionalizare
în Europa Centrală şi de Est
20/21.
Integrarea europeană şi statutul minorităţilor
22/23. Politici
descentralizatoare şi autonomia regională
24.
Identităţi
– structuri şi caracteristici
25.
Dilemele identităţii
293
The PRO EUROPE League (Liga PRO EUROPA) is one of the
most well-known
civic NGOs in
Romania, founded in the Transylvanian town of Tîrgu-Mureş
(Marosvásárhely — Neumarkt), on 30 December
1989, immediately after the fall of
the Ceauşescu’s dictatorial regime.
The
PEL has become respected due to its involvment in promoting human
rights, pluralism and multicultural values.
From the very begining of the transition, the PEL has played a significant role in the political reality of
Romania,
joining different civic movements and
alliances committed to mobilize public opinion against the restauration of the former communist structures. In the
specific
area of the multicultural society of
Transylvania, the PEL has played an important role in monitoring
discriminatory policies against minorities and in promoting tolerance between Romanians and
Hungarians, a key issue for peace and
democratic progress in Central Europe.
For more than eight years, the PEL has organized an
impressive number of
workshops, seminars, round-table debates, summer camps, conflict
resolution missions and meetings for teachers, local authorities, judges,
prosecutors, students,
political and civic leaders, has published an independent weekly and a
series of
booklets and
brochures.
altera is meant to promote the PEL’s values
among academics, policy makers and the large public in Romania. It is one of the few Romanian publication
focusing on the issue of ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity in
the Transylvanian
area, as well
as European integration.