political science in post-communist romania
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Abstract The article explores the development and institutionalisation of political science in Romania after 1989. It argues that, despite a rapid process of expansion and institutionalisation, the emergence of political science as an internationally competitive discipline has been fundamentally affected by two types of factors: communist legacies and systemic under-investment in teaching and research.
Keywords
romania; higher education; political science; democratisation
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olitical science is a relatively new discipline in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Freed from the intellectual straightjacket of Marxism– Leninism, a growing body of research and teaching has emerged in Romania, as in many other post-communist countries, in close relation to the intertwined processes of democratic consolidation and transition to a market economy. Within this context, Romanian political science has started to converge with much of the Western scholarship from which it had been insulated for several decades. Moreover, the impetus for growth and the enhanced public profile of the discipline of political science have been considerably amplified by the need to reform outdated administrative structures and establish a professional body of civil servants.
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This article focuses on the development and institutionalisation of political science in Romania, where, despite a relatively slow start, considerable progress has been made during the past decade and a half. The aim of the article is to explore the institutionalisation of political science at university level in post-communist Romania from 1990 to the present day. The principal argument elaborated here is that the momentous growth in teaching and research in political science lags behind that in other European countries due to three principal factors: insufficient state investment in education; the relative lack of innovative teaching methods and curricula; and meagre financial support for the research activities of established and young scholars. The investigation is structured in three parts: first, an overview of the legacies of the communist period;
european political science: 6 2007 (24 – 33) & 2007 European Consortium for Political Research. 1680-4333/07 $30 www.palgrave-journals.com/eps
second, an outline of the institutional development in the field of political science; third, an analysis of the principal characteristics of research and teaching in political science in post-communist Romania. In order to provide a comprehensive picture of political science, the analysis presented here relies on both existing scholarly literature and statistical data, as they were available at the time of writing. Since Romania is one of the least researched countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the relatively limited range of material available for analysis has been an important methodological consideration for this article. In order to overcome this constraint, relevant sources in both English and Romanian have been used throughout the article.
COMMUNIST LEGACIE
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