While examining the efforts of the European Union to halt democratic backsliding two groups of actions have emerged. They can be summarized as efforts concerning legitimacy, where challenges to...Show moreWhile examining the efforts of the European Union to halt democratic backsliding two groups of actions have emerged. They can be summarized as efforts concerning legitimacy, where challenges to current Western norms are met, and concerning authority, where power misusage and active degradation to liberal law are met with policy change and increased vigilance. This project compares the two approaches and seeks to determine when backsliding is halted within two case states - Hungary and Romania. Analyzing the past two decades, the thesis project would allow for a greater understanding of whether each approach is worth taking in states in different stages of illiberalism.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
closed access
Within the field of agriculture, significant global changes are underway, which have profound impact on various aspects on the local level. These global changes influence the local employment...Show moreWithin the field of agriculture, significant global changes are underway, which have profound impact on various aspects on the local level. These global changes influence the local employment structure, the landscape, nature, biodiversity and the overall perception of agriculture. More than one third of the land in Romania is dedicated to agriculture, and nearly a quarter of the population works within the agricultural sector, which makes it an ideal area to examine how these global changes take place on a local level. As farming is deeply embedded within the local culture and landscape, it becomes imperative to explore the social dimension of the challenges and transformations unfolding in the agricultural domain. This ethnographic research is specifically focused on understanding the livelihoods and households of farmers in Transylvania, Romania. To shed light on how the sociocultural aspects of the farmers livelihoods and households relate towards the decisions and pathways farmers take within their profession. By both exploring the micro-level of the thoughts and actions of the farmers and how their households react to change, it gives implications on changes within the macro-level of regional and global structural changes taking place. This is done through case studies of farmers living in rural Transylvania. Reflection on these case studies is done through implementing Van der Ploeg his theory of repeasantisation. Given the pivotal role of farmers within the local community, this research also includes the changes that have taken place and are taking place in the village community of Șoimeni, Romania.Show less
Absorption capacity has been argued to be an essential indicator of the effectiveness of cohesion policy in European Union (EU) member states. Using the Principal-Agent framework to study the...Show moreAbsorption capacity has been argued to be an essential indicator of the effectiveness of cohesion policy in European Union (EU) member states. Using the Principal-Agent framework to study the implementation stage of cohesion policy, this thesis aims to find whether the Commission as a principal can influence the absorption capacity of countries (the agents) through its control mechanisms, namely the ex-ante conditionalities and priority axes. By doing a comparative analysis of Bulgaria and Romania, findings suggest that while Bulgaria did not follow the Commission’s rules and absorbed a significant amount of funds, Romania, which strictly followed EU’s conditionalities, had its absorption capacity negatively influenced by the Commission. This negative influence is even more evident with the increased funding a member state receives for some of its operational programmes as larger financial assistance requires the country to follow more EU rules.Show less
The issue of restitution is one that is witnessed throughout the world, at various levels. This thesis explores the type of restitution seen within Romania, and examines the procedures utilised by...Show moreThe issue of restitution is one that is witnessed throughout the world, at various levels. This thesis explores the type of restitution seen within Romania, and examines the procedures utilised by two museums in the return of cultural objects. The focus is placed in the procedures of the Brukenthal National Museum and the Medias Municipal Museum, in Sibiu County. The interesting aspect of these restitutions is that, unlike in many Western museums, restitution cases in Romania are often internal, and carried out between state museums and private individuals. The impact of the Communist regime, and their forceful nationalisation of privately owned cultural objects create a deeper understanding of why current restitution cases occur within the nation. This included their direct and indirect effect on current restitution claims at the two museums. The research was carried out using semi-structured interviews with curators at the museums, along with one former curator at the Medias Municipal Museum, and an interview with the claimant of the Gheorghe Cernea case. These were further supported by written surveys completed by four additional museums: Bran Castle, the National Museum of Transylvanian History, the National Museum of Romanian History, and the Moldovan National Museum Complex. Questions asked included their procedures related to unprovenanced objects, their procedures related to restitution cases, and their personal opinions on the ethics of the return of objects. The findings demonstrate three main points: acquisition procedures from the communist period, and unknown provenance of objects complicate current restitution claims; the Romanian government involved itself in museum exhibitions in an attempt to control the cultural identity made public, and thus by extension influenced the types of objects entered in the collection; and the restitution procedures of the participating museums are judicial in nature. Thus the Communist regime influenced current restitution claims in two ways: indirectly, and directly. The creation of law no. 182/2000 in response to these crimes committed by the government, to aid in the restitution of cultural objects further demonstrates the indirect influence of the former regime. An imbalance remains, favouring the return of immovable cultural heritage, in both laws and organisations helping individuals file claims. Whilst the research is limited in this thesis, it is hoped that it stimulates future studies on the subject, to bring the issue to a greater audience and reduce the taboo around cultural object restitution that remains in Romanian heritage institutions.Show less
This historical thesis challenges the current consensus among scholars that Romania’s involvement in the 1992 Transnistrian War, on the side of the Moldovan government, was motivated only by desire...Show moreThis historical thesis challenges the current consensus among scholars that Romania’s involvement in the 1992 Transnistrian War, on the side of the Moldovan government, was motivated only by desire for reunification with its former territory of Bessarabia. The historical relationship between Romania and Moldova, the ethnic dynamics and distributions of Transnstria and the extent of Romanian intervention in the war are presented and analysed. A case is made that the Romanian government’s immediate goal was not a political union Moldova, but maintaining stability.Show less
Advanced master thesis | Political Science (Advanced Master)
open access
This thesis examines the impact of the European Union (EU) on the fight against high-level political corruption in Bulgaria and Romania from 2007 to 2013. Rather than being the result of internal...Show moreThis thesis examines the impact of the European Union (EU) on the fight against high-level political corruption in Bulgaria and Romania from 2007 to 2013. Rather than being the result of internal historical or cultural processes, I argue – in line with the theory of Europeanization – that the fight against corruption in these two countries is driven by the adaptational pressure exerted by the EU on the relevant national political actors (governments and parliaments). Using process-tracing, I show how this pressure wielded principally by the Commission via the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) and reinforced by some Member States through Schengen-membership conditionality leads to concrete legal and institutional reforms facilitating the control of high-level corruption. In particular, I find that when the Commission resorts to negative incentives (high adaptational pressure) domestic political will to adopt the desired changes increases correspondingly. Overall, I evaluate the CVM as an effective EU tool for tackling corruption in Bulgaria and Romania and I consequently recommend the implementation of a supranational monitoring system of this kind on a universal basis as to provide better guarantees that the fundamental values and principles of the EU are observed across all Member States at all times.Show less
