The Emergent Romanian Post-Communist Ethos: From Nationalism to Privatism

Problems of Post-Communism

Volumn 51, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 40-47

  Matei, Sorin ^a,b  

^a PURDUE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b TRANSILVANIA UNIVERSITY OF BRASOV   (Romania)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 1842783622     PISSN: 10758216     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10758216.2004.11052157     Document Type: Review

References (31)

1. Evenimentul (November 30, 1998).
2. Mircea Boari, personal communication with author, February 26, 2000.
3. Curentul (December 1998).
4. Rodica Chelaru, personal communication with author, February 19, 2000.
5. Bogdan Ghiu, "Unu, Decembrie (semnat indescifrabil)" (December First [signed anonymous]), Dilema (December 4-10, 1998) (www.algoritma.ro/ dilema/305/ghiu.htm).
6. "Ethos" is used here in the same way as employed by Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Talcott Parsons (New York: Routledge, 1992), and Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973). The ethos of a culture is its tone and style, its way of framing the major issues of life, the set of rules and values that shape the way people imagine their model of social life. It is a personal and social life-ideal. Every social formation has its specific ethos. European feudalism generated several models - the nobility was inspired by bravery, honor, and social distinction, the clergy by renunciation of formal links to secular society and by education. In classical Chinese civilization, the Mandarin ethos valued a complex system of social norms and secular erudition. Probably the most famous ethic/ethos in contemporary academic literature is the Protestant one as described by Weber.
7. "Ethos" is used here in the same way as employed by Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Talcott Parsons (New York: Routledge, 1992), and Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973). The ethos of a culture is its tone and style, its way of framing the major issues of life, the set of rules and values that shape the way people imagine their model of social life. It is a personal and social life-ideal. Every social formation has its specific ethos. European feudalism generated several models - the nobility was inspired by bravery, honor, and social distinction, the clergy by renunciation of formal links to secular society and by education. In classical Chinese civilization, the Mandarin ethos valued a complex system of social norms and secular erudition. Probably the most famous ethic/ethos in contemporary academic literature is the Protestant one as described by Weber.
8. Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea, Neoiobagia: studiu economico-sociologie al problemei noastre agrare (Neo-Serfdom: An Economic and Sociological Study of Our Agrarian Problem] (Bucharest: Editura Librariei Socec, 1910); Kenneth Jowitt, "The Socio-Cultural Bases of National Dependency," in Social Change in Romania, 1860-1940, ed. Kenneth Jowitt (Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of California, 1978); Stefan Radulescu-Motru, Cultura româna si politicianismul (Politicking and Romanian Culture), 3d ed. (Bucharest: Editura Librariei Leon Alcalay, 1910)
9. Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea, Neoiobagia: studiu economico-sociologie al problemei noastre agrare (Neo-Serfdom: An Economic and Sociological Study of Our Agrarian Problem] (Bucharest: Editura Librariei Socec, 1910); Kenneth Jowitt, "The Socio-Cultural Bases of National Dependency," in Social Change in Romania, 1860-1940, ed. Kenneth Jowitt (Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of California, 1978); Stefan Radulescu-Motru, Cultura româna si politicianismul (Politicking and Romanian Culture), 3d ed. (Bucharest: Editura Librariei Leon Alcalay, 1910)
10. Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea, Neoiobagia: studiu economico-sociologie al problemei noastre agrare (Neo-Serfdom: An Economic and Sociological Study of Our Agrarian Problem] (Bucharest: Editura Librariei Socec, 1910); Kenneth Jowitt, "The Socio-Cultural Bases of National Dependency," in Social Change in Romania, 1860-1940, ed. Kenneth Jowitt (Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of California, 1978); Stefan Radulescu-Motru, Cultura româna si politicianismul (Politicking and Romanian Culture), 3d ed. (Bucharest: Editura Librariei Leon Alcalay, 1910)
11. H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, eds., From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1946), p. 207.
12. Ioan Constantin Filitti, "Clasele sociale în trecutul românesc" (Social Classes in the Romanian Past), Arhiva pentru stiinta si reforma sociala 5-6, nos. 3-4 (1925-26): 326.
13. Gerth and Mills, From Max Weber.
14. Andrew C. Janos, "Modernization and Decay," in Social Change in Romania, 1860-1940, ed. Kenneth Jowitt (Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of California, 1978).
15. Ion Luca Caragiale, Opere (Works), ed. Alexandra Rosetti, Serban Cioculescu, and Liviu Calin, vol. 4 (Bucharest: Editura pentru literatura, 1965), p. 71.
16. Ilie Badescu, Sincronism european si cultura critica româneasca: contributii de sociologie istorica privind cultura moderna româneasca (European Synchronization and Romanian Critical Culture: Contributions to the Historical Sociology of Modern Romanian Culture) (Bucharest: Editura Stiintifica si Enciclopedica, 1984); Daniel Chirot, Social Change in a Peripheral Society: The Creation of a Balkan Colony (New York: New Academic Press, 1976); Janos, "Modernization and Decay"; Jowitt, "Socio-Cultural Bases of National Dependency."
17. Ilie Badescu, Sincronism european si cultura critica româneasca: contributii de sociologie istorica privind cultura moderna româneasca (European Synchronization and Romanian Critical Culture: Contributions to the Historical Sociology of Modern Romanian Culture) (Bucharest: Editura Stiintifica si Enciclopedica, 1984); Daniel Chirot, Social Change in a Peripheral Society: The Creation of a Balkan Colony (New York: New Academic Press, 1976); Janos, "Modernization and Decay"; Jowitt, "Socio-Cultural Bases of National Dependency."
18. Ilie Badescu, Sincronism european si cultura critica româneasca: contributii de sociologie istorica privind cultura moderna româneasca (European Synchronization and Romanian Critical Culture: Contributions to the Historical Sociology of Modern Romanian Culture) (Bucharest: Editura Stiintifica si Enciclopedica, 1984); Daniel Chirot, Social Change in a Peripheral Society: The Creation of a Balkan Colony (New York: New Academic Press, 1976); Janos, "Modernization and Decay"; Jowitt, "Socio-Cultural Bases of National Dependency."
19. Ilie Badescu, Sincronism european si cultura critica româneasca: contributii de sociologie istorica privind cultura moderna româneasca (European Synchronization and Romanian Critical Culture: Contributions to the Historical Sociology of Modern Romanian Culture) (Bucharest: Editura Stiintifica si Enciclopedica, 1984); Daniel Chirot, Social Change in a Peripheral Society: The Creation of a Balkan Colony (New York: New Academic Press, 1976); Janos, "Modernization and Decay"; Jowitt, "Socio-Cultural Bases of National Dependency."
20. Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World-System (New York: Academic Press, 1974).
21. Name changed to preserve anonymity. This section is based on informal interviews conducted during the summer of 1997 for a study on the new Romanian ethos and its media representations.
22. Harry Triandis, "The Self and Social Behavior in Differing Cultural Contexts," Psychological Review 96, no. 3 (July 1989): 506-20; Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (New York: Doubleday, 1959).
23. Harry Triandis, "The Self and Social Behavior in Differing Cultural Contexts," Psychological Review 96, no. 3 (July 1989): 506-20; Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (New York: Doubleday, 1959).
24. Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society, trans. W.D. Halls (New York: Free Press, 1984).
25. Jowitt, "Socio-Cultural Bases of National Dependency."
26. Alexander Zinoviev, The Reality of Communism, trans. Charles Janson (New York: Schocken Books, 1984).
27. Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (Chicago: Aldine, 1969); Arnold van Gennep, The Rites of Passage, trans. Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960).
28. Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (Chicago: Aldine, 1969); Arnold van Gennep, The Rites of Passage, trans. Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960).
29. Open Society Foundation-Bucharest, Joint Database for I Public Opinion] Barometers Carried Out Between 1995-1998 (in Romanian: www.osf.ro/pob/joint.zip/ ).
30. The response category "I would give them to my children" was transformed into a dummy variable with only two values (i.e., 1 if the respondent selected the option, and 0 if he did not). Logistic regression indicates the odds ratios for a series of independent variables associated with the occurrence or non-occurrence of the values of the dependent variable. The independent variables entered in the model were occupation and gender. Education and nationality had no significant effect. The analysis was done especially for this study.
31. Open Society Foundation-Bucharest, Joint Database.