Building Legitimacy: The Role of Political Myths in the Presidential Campaigns of the Early 90s in Romania (original) (raw)
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This paper analyzes differences in the legitimation strategies used by, and on behalf of the two presidential candidates in the elections of December 2004 in Romania, using a combination of Critical Discourse Analysis and pragma-dialectics. These differences are seen to lie primarily in the varieties of populist discourse that were drawn upon in the construction of legitimizing arguments for both candidates: a paternalist type vs. a radical-authoritarian, anti-political type of populism. I relate the success of the latter type to more effective strategic manoeuvring in argumentation, part of more effective branding strategies in general, but also to existing types of political culture amongst the electorate and to social, economic circumstances. I also argue that, in the Romanian context at the end of 2004, a variety of otherwise fallacious populist electoral messages were perceived as reasonable and acceptable, as fitting adjustments to the situation and as means of optimizing the deliberative situation of the electorate.
The Establishment of Romanian Political Parties after ’89: Appearance, Evolution and Elections
Anuarul Institutului de Cercetări Socio-Umane „C.S. Nicolăescu-Plopșor”
Following the events of December '89, all the existing structures up to that moment were dissolved and a sudden replacement of the totalitarian regime with a democratic one was made. As a result, a problematic situation was generated for the Romanian society at the same time that the idea of the need to organize free elections as a tool for the production of political institutions emerged. The difficulty came from the lack of political parties, the main prerogative of the multi-party system and the establishment of constituent democracy. Thus, the first step of the new established regime was the organization of political parties. As parts of the social corpus, the political parties, bearers of power interests, are the instruments of the principle of representativeness and indispensable factors of the functioning of democracy. For Romanian society in the '90, political parties were (re)created in a specific context. The present study proposes an incursion into the context in which the Romanian political parties appeared and evolved immediately after the revolution.
What Was Left from Democracy? Electoralism and Populism in Romania
P erspective Politice se adresează tuturor celor interesaţi de teoria şi ştiinţa politică, adică de un corpus teoretic ce reuneşte în sine un univers de curente, modele teoretice şi metode de cercetare a realităţii politice imediate, pentru a edifi ca un forum în care intelectualii şi expertiza academică să poată reconfi gura teoretic realul. Perspective Politice este deschisă oricărei paradigme şi metodologii de abordare a politicului, de la analiză internă şi internaţională până la teoria alegerii raţionale, politică comparată, instituţionalism, teorie politică, etică şi istoria gândirii politice. Este şi motivul pentru care titlul revistei foloseşte pluralul: perspectivele politice sunt fi reşti într-o societate plurală, dialogică, refl exivă, deliberativă.
Introduction: Contemporary Romanian politics
Communist and Post-communist Studies, 2010
Romania is an archetypical case of protracted post-communism. Its regime transition was problematic and its founding election flawed, allowing successor communists to secure their hold on power. A period of quasi-authoritarianism and failed reform followed until critical elections in 1996 brought the liberal opposition to power for the first time. Since that time its political system has stabilized into a pattern in which electoral competition occurs but political accountability is limited and corruption is widespread. The current regime should therefore be considered as consolidated, bearing the marks of the transition period, but unlikely to undergo any further near term dramatic change. Ó 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Regents of the University of California.
Edifying the New Man: Romanian Communist Leadership's Mythopoeia
Totalitarian regimes struggle to justify and support their actions by myths symbolizing their power. Such regimes employ state mythopoeia to transmit their philosophical truths to the people. Ideological control is achieved by means of new or remastered old myths. This paper deals with Communist mythmaking in the specific ideological environment of 1980s Romania, dominated by the Ceausescu dictatorship. In a systematic effort to change the consciousness of the people, Communist mythoplasts (propagandists) were tasked to implement a new, Socialist culture. One of the purposes of this state mythopoeia was to edify the New Man. This paper analyzes the myth of the New Man, a structural element of the Romanian Communist Party ideology, as presented in the doctrinal documents of the party. The significance of the New Man myth to an evolving concept of leadership is also considered from a perspective in which leadership is seen as an expression of the relationship between leaders and follo...
7.Claudia-Florentina Dobre, Cristian-Emilian Ghiţă, (eds.), Quest for a Suitable Past: Myth and Memory in Central and Eastern Europe, CEU Press, New York-Budapest: 101-117. , 2017
After the fall of communism in December 1989, a feverish period of political and social changes ensued. A new political order took shape, instituted by and instituting a new social imaginary. In the process, old myths were brought back to life in order to give meaning and significance to the new reality, as well as to determine political and social cohesion and coherence. This chapter looks at the structures of the post-communist social imaginary in Romania through the lenses of the mythology constructed to make sense of the past and to provide significance to the present.
The Romanian revolution of 1989 influenced on the Romanian society with blood. It created a new political regime abolishing the sultanistic politics. However, the new regime and society after the revolution was not democratic. The post-communist Romania was controlled by one group. People and oppositions were deceived and oppressed by the group. Why was new Romania after the revolution undemocratic? The answer can be found in the revolution. There are three factors, which brought the undemocratic Romania, in the process of the revolution. The first factor is the absence of opposing organizations against the communist regime. Next is power of former members of the Romanian Communist Party. Violence is the third one. There was no opposing groups against the regime which could be the alternative political organizations formed by citizens. A new political organization consisted of former members of the communist party dominantly. And the revolution contained violence and more than 1000 people were dead while other revolutions were peaceful in East-Central Europe. The revolution lacked the reflection of public opinion with peaceful procedures. The undemocratic revolution led to an undemocratic Romania after the revolution. This paper, in order to make the factors clear and to see how they affected the new Romania, firstly explains the historical background of the communist regime in Romania and the revolution of 1989. Then, it analyzes each factor in the revolution and post-communist Romania.
National or European? The Case of Romanian Political Parties' Platforms for 2009 European Elections
2009
This article addresses the issue of the relationship between national and European dimensions, as overlapping identity structures of Romanian citizenship in the last years. The problem of a European identity became prominent in the context of the recent integration of Romania into the European structures. This paper presents a textual analysis of political platforms concerning European and national identities, as presented on the official sites of Romanian political parties during the 2009 European elections campaign.
2017
In its endeavour to legitimate power, political communication seeks to convince the electorate, in every possible way and on every possible occasion and, while doing so, it resorts to different linguistic strategies. The presence of myths and metaphors seems to have flourished in today's political discourse, probably due to the numerous political crises that have erupted lately at an international level. This article aims to address a few of the linguistic characteristics of political myths and metaphors, mostly from a theoretical point of view, trying at the same time to establish a connection between the two, regarding the creation of political realities and practices through language.