Recenzie Anthony Downs politica comparata, eng

7/29/2019 Recenzie Anthony Downs politica comparata, eng

1/45

360

Romanian Political Science Review vol. X no. 2 2010

RADU CARP


2/45


3/45


4/45


5/45

364


RECENSIONES

his revolutionary vocation. But Lenin had

compensating virtues that became evidentupon a closer acquaintance: practicality andthe ability and willingness to work hard.His comrades, even if they were not drawntoward him, were soon made to appreciatehis talents as a thinker and conspirator.Struve claims to have detected early inyoung Ulyanov abstract social hatred,cold political cruelty, real asceticism,and indomitable love of power. Soon,propaganda of these clandestine social-democratic networks ensued, but withno obvious success: the doctrine was

hard and the workers too tired to studythe dialectics of history of Karl Marx onSunday mornings. There was a sense ofromanticism in Lenins endeavor at thetime which lives one puzzled even today:

basically, these few full-time revolutionariesspoke in vain since the proletarian ima-gination was a tough nut to crack by MarxsRussian disciples. In 1894, for the firsttime Lenin found himself in real jail. Theprevious arrest in Kazan did not count, forto spend a few days in prison as a resultof student disturbances was as common

and unsensational in Russia as to be finedfor a traffic offense in the United States(p. 123). He was prisoner for 15 months.To conclude this time in Lenins life, Ulamcomments: Before dispersing to travel totheir distant destinations seven Socialistsposed for a group photograph. With theirvery proper bourgeois dress and againstthe background of some hideous Victorianfurniture, the young men hardly suggestedthe dangerous revolutionaries who in a fewyears transformed Russian socialism from adiscussion club into a movement (p. 127).

His stay in Siberia will only toughen thebelief in the science behind the doctrine.As Ulam states: The Marxist is a man whohas conquered religious superstition, forwhom the struggles of the Antinomians,Nominalists, and Realists are fantastic talesfrom the age of darkness. But his own pathis a narrow and difficult one between thechasms of Revisionism and Dogmatism(p. 138). It was clear for Lenin that a partywas needed. Another important aspect: in

1898 Lenin married Nadezhda Krupskaya,

who became his personal secretary (beforeher, he used to abuse his sisters).Although Russia was not the heaven

of capitalism from which the dictatorshipof the proletariat by means of revolutionwould emerge, given the fact that almosteverywhere across Western Europe theworking class became more and morestrongholds of small bourgeois life-valuesand capitalism was not on the wink, Russia,the most unreformed state in Europe, turnedinto the laboratory of Marxist dogmas. Yet,how could Marxism seems realistic without

a sense of class division, inherited almostbiologically? The bourgeois intelligentsiawere hateful, cowardly, and otherwisecondemned; the worker was pure, coura-geous, and otherwise praiseworthy. Butwhen it came to the concrete problems ofrevolutionary organization in the year1897 it was ridiculous to think that onecould dispense with the intellectuals.Where would a workers party led solely

by workers lead them? Why, toward thatspecter haunting revolutionary Marxism,trade unionism. For all his venom toward

his own class Lenin was capable of brutalcommon sense. Karl Marx and FriedrichEngels, he wrote, came themselves from themiddle class. A revolutionary party neededthe intelligentsia, needed converts fromevery class (p. 148).

The question of revisionism willtrouble the next years of Lenins life, somuch as the same matter will test the wholeEuropean socialist parties across Germanyand France. By 1900s, socialism was a full-fledged European movement with a massincreasing appeal. Russia was not exactly

on the map of world socialism, but thepoor state of expectations for the demiseof capitalism triggered hopes for RussianEmpire. By 1900, the only significant workpublished by Lenin was The Developmentof Capitalism in Russia, just a necessarytheoretical step for the prospects of theRevolution.

The break partly originated fromLenins book What Is to Be Done? (1901-1902), which proposed a smaller party


6/45

365


RECENSIONES

organisation ofprofessional revolutionaries,

with Iskra in a primary ideological role.What Is To Be Done? is, then, a theory and apanegyric in praise ofthe Party, somethingthen a novelty in political literature. Thepast political theorists and prophetsextolled and claimed political power on

behalf of aking, church, class, or leader. Asyet this party existed only in Lenins mind.It was to be composed of professionalrevolutionaries, but it was not a mereconspiracy. It was to enlist intellectuals,indeed from among them were to besought its leaders, but it was to avoid the

intellectuals vices ofcontinuous doctrinaldispute, indecision, humanitarian scruples,and the like. It was to rely upon workers,

but certainly the Partys aims transcendedthe petty interests of the working class insecuring a better livelihoodand conditionsof work (p. 179).

What Is To Be Done? is not writtenin exaltation. It is not a messianic visionof a better world. On its face it is alaboriously, awkwardly written polemicalpamphlet. Its flashes of insight, its hintsof inspired revolutionary audacity are all

but lost within the context of pedantic,organizational strictures and attacks upongroups and personalities, now only ofhistorical interest. Consequently, in 1903,the Russian Social Democratic LabourParty () ideologically diverged asthe Bolshevik and the Menshevik factions;the RSDLP party faction names Bolshevik(majority) and Menshevik (minority) derivefrom the narrow Bolshevik electoral defeatof the Mensheviks to the partys newspapereditorial board, and to central committeeleadership. The split within the party was to

last all during the Civil War: the Bolshevikshave a deep commitment to the letter of therevolution, while the Mensheviks supportthe cause of the working classes but do notrefrain from reformism of capitalism for the

benefit of the proletariat. To the Mensheviks,the crisis of capitalism, which would leadto the Revolution, comes from Marxs lawsof capitalisms internal contradictions anddoes not need hurry. The Revolution was

being dropped out for something no better

than syndicalism. At least, this was Lenins

viewpoint. In the meantime, the Russiansocialists found themselves in exile acrossEurope, especially France and Switzerland

being secure place to stay, and wereinfiltrated by Okhrana double agents.

The failed Russian Revolution of 1905took the socialists in exile by surprise. Itwas a missed time for them, but the reactionof the Russian military was prompt andefficient nevertheless. Ulam goes to greatlength to show how this failure to participateeffectively to the revolution was a mixtureof lack of party coherence, remoteness from

Russia and the un-socialist germs of therevolution. The only person who benefitedmostly from the 1905 Revolution was thecreator of the first Soviet (workers councilin English) of Petrograd: Leon Trotsky. Theyears that will come will be a period ofcross ideological distinctions coming fromLenin, who, far from having the talent ofPlekhanov the philosopher, he was a goodagitator and ferocious dialectician. Leninput the basis of a belief in the vanguardof an established revolutionary group,in control of the party, supporters of the

peasant in their transformation to workersand a commitment in preserving theessential purity of the Marxist doctrine.In the meantime, settled in Geneva, Leninwould agree to the numbers of plunderingwhich were taking place in Russia for thesake of the small party in exile and itsfinancial troubles. Among the most talentedsocialist thieves would be I.V. Stalin, youngand restless. In 1909 Lenin publishedMaterialism and Empirio-Criticism, a defenseof Marxism from modern epistemologicaldesigns, quite in fashion around 1910 and

ready to distract the attention from theRevolution of some heretic comrades.Lenins popularity at the time was on thewane. However, his utmost devotion, hispragmatism and openness to sign in to thenewest idea in the party, but only to subvertit afterwards, made him a wholeheartedlykeen politician.

It is important to settle for a while onLenins personality: he was a devote readerand an admirer of cities with large libraries,


7/45


8/45


9/45

368


RECENSIONES

government would grind to a halt. No cult

of personality as yet. No apparatus of theParty Secretariat that would weed out thedisobedient Bolsheviks and assure that allthe offices were safely in the hands of hismen. No secret police yet to terrorize oppo-nents, not to mention fellow Party mem-

bers (p. 378).Not long afterwards, Lenin would

prove his organizational talent and iron-fisted control of the party: the Secret Policewas created, the party was reshapedat the top making Lenin the Leader bydefinition, everything was in intention

to be centralized and regulated by theParty. Yet the Bolshevik Government hadto first withdraw Russia from the FirstWorld War. On 3 March 1918, Russiawithdrew from the First World War via theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk, losing much of itsEuropean lands and suffering a territoryshortage which was similar to Russias

borders before the eighteenth century. On19 January 1918, relying upon the soviets,the Bolsheviks, allied with anarchists andthe Socialist Revolutionaries, dissolvedthe Russian Constituent Assembly thereby

consolidating the Bolshevik Governmentspolitical power. The following years wouldbring civil war and social chaos, but, withall the other major power weakened by war,and with the administrative incoherence ofthe White Army, the Bolsheviks triumphed.Trotsky was the great artisan behind theRed Armys success, together with formerTsarist officers who joined the cause ofthe October Revolution. The age of terrorcoincided with the creation of the Cheka.From March 1918, the Bolsheviks changedtheir name to the Communist Party of the

Soviet Union. Propaganda and agitationin the name of empty phrases such as allpower to the soviets were part of theRed Armys daily activity. From 1918 to1920, Lenin consolidated the Party elite,engaged into open combat with any of hispotential enemies for reasons of doubt inthe Revolution and ensures his rule as theDictator. Tragically, the world Revolutionthat should have taken place after theBolshevik did not occur. But revolution at

home had to be protected. Communism

turned into a Russian business and underthe Partys cosmopolitan propaganda signsof nationalistic beliefs and chauvinism wereto be detected. After 1920, a brief state-controlled free-capitalism was allowed,the NEP, as to alleviate the poor situationleft behind by years of international andinternal warfare. Lenin engulfed himselfinto a blind love for electrification andtechnicians, the so-called specialists.These would supposedly bring Russiasescape from backwardness. At the endof the 1920s, collectivization and forced

industrialization would be the newuniversal solution to Russias problems. Inthe meantime, Cheka was doing its killing

business with much success. Dissenterswere being hunted down from every socialclass: the middle class, the clergy, the richpeasants (kulaks) experienced the mortaltreatments of the Cheka. With the passing oftime, the Party solidified and the Politburo,at the pinnacle of it, was sewing a web of

bureaucratic duties which transformed thegovernments administration into a badavatar of the old Tsarist bureaucracy. Lenins

final years were marked by disillusion withthe prospect of the establishing socialismat home, but faith in the potential ofthe newly-founded Comintern existed.However, power belonged to the party andLenin as well. The fight for the party top-leadership initiated as soon as the phasesof Lenins illness (some credited syphilis to

be responsible for the Great Mans death)advanced. Nevertheless, Lenin kept onworking, reading, writing as usual, to thepoint of exhaustion, passed decrees andenvisaged the prospect of finishing once

and for all the centralized character of theparty bureaucracy (his personal testamentis a political stance for reforming thePolitburo). The devotion with internalparty-business was from 1903 to his deathin 1924 a constant obsession for Lenin. Inthe end, what Ulam manages to take outof Lenins life is the mixture of dogmatismand political opportunism, of pragmaticaccommodation to historical realitiesand careful preparation before taking


10/45

369


RECENSIONES

action. Every act had to be a fatal blow to

something or someone, according to Lenin.After reading Adam Ulams masterfullywritten historical document, one would

be puzzled with a lasting question: wasLenin devoted that much too correctlyunderstanding the Marxist legacy or was

he the supreme anti-liberal politician of the

20th

century? After all, what Lenin loathedand despised fanatically during his entiremature existence was one social breed: theliberal intellectuals.

DAN-ALEXANDRU CHI

PETER MOLLOYThe Lost World of Communism. An Oral History of Daily Life Behindthe Iron CurtainBBC Books, London, 2009, 320 pp.

The collapse of the communist regimesin Eastern Europe brought to a halt thepeculiar socialist way of life. Along withmore known aspects of daily existence ofthe people behind the Iron Curtain suchas secret police surveillance, politicalrepression or dissidence, Peter Molloysvolume tracks how ordinary life was like

behind the Iron Curtain between 1945and 1989 through a mosaic of personalmemories. His characters, some of whichwere presented in Molloys series on BBC2as well, tell their own story of communism,accompanied by the authors minimalinterventions.

Framed by an oral-history format, thebook talks extensively about the crueltyof the regime, but also about how thefierceness of the first decade of communismeroded over time and even favoured thespreading of a new flavour of comedy:socialist humour. Attempting to illustratethe diversity of communist living, the textevokes several tragic accounts of victimsof the communist tyranny, as well as someso-called average existences of communist-supporters and a few first-hand memoriesof former regime privilgis such as formerPolitburo members, former secret policeofficers or apparatchiks. These three typesof communist backgrounds are drawn fromtestimonies of survivors of the communistderail from three visibly different societies:East Germany, former Czechoslovakia and

Romania. The three countries experienceddifferently communism accordingly tothe extent of their initial support forcommunism, the way each nation translatedMarxism-Leninism into practice, thecommunist transformations they enduredduring the Cold War era etc. Generally,people felt miserable because they had toendure numerous deprivations and even themost ferocious supporters of communismpresented in the volume cannot fully justifythe regimes grotesque allure.

Communism was built with fewhard-liners and many opportunists.Trained in Stalins Soviet Union andsent to East Germany to serve as WalterUlbrichts secretary, Wolfgang Leonhardis one representative of the former partyranks. Before his defection to TitosYugoslavia in 1949 he experienced aprivileged lifestyle reserved to the partyelite and was little convinced with theway socialism was accomplished in EastBerlin. Comparatively, Wolf Biermannwas a true believer of socialism, having asolid communist upbringing; this at leastuntil his incrimination during the 1965SED congress for spreading imperialistpropaganda. His expulsion from the DDRgenerated a wave of support from fellowartists, which the party couldnt predictor control. Both characters illustrate theprofoundly rotten nature of the new typeof socialist temperament. They are visibly


11/45


12/45

371


RECENSIONES

whatsoever. But, unlike many who took

advantage of the communist regime, Kochwas able to distance himself from his initialunconditioned affection for the DDR and toface the unpleasant reality.

In socialist Romania, for the demon-strations held to honour the Ceauescuschildren had the centre stage reserved.The author presents us the case of AndreiDuban, who was one of the preferredchildren at those events. His displays ofpatriotic sentiments and poems creditingthe startling qualities of the rulers were

broadcasted regularly on radio and TV.

Duban characterizes the festivals andparades held back then as highly artificial,with people forced to take part. On theother hand, Nicu Covaci, the leader of theiconic rock band called Phoenix, recalls thattheir audience appetence for the hiddenmessages in their music was decisive forthe groups success, especially as theyvoiced widespread criticisms against thecommunist regime.

The most striking aspect of thecommunist years in Romania is arguablythe personality cult of the Ceauescus. Peter

Molloy addresses the subject though theconfessions of Ion Mihai Pacepa and tefanAndrei, two of the high-ranking officialsmost close to the dictator. They perceivedCeauescus abuses of power as originatingin his excessive distrust in others and hisobsession with his colourless past (p. 38).The mightiest accomplishments of theleading family were presented on the state-run TV channel daily, with censors andofficers from the Securitate trying their bestto show the public an ideal image of thedictatorial family.

As most of the other aspects of the dailyexistence of the people under communism,leisure time too became a monopoleof the party-state. Holidays and sportevents became a matter of state-run massorganizations endorsing the communistcredo. Even the Olympics were a matter ofparty prestige as numerous athletes weresecretly doped, with tragic consequences fortheir health and mental integrity. Neitherthe children escaped the communists

efforts to propagate their ideology

cartoons were all about the achievements ofsocialism. Alternatives existed nevertheless,as were the underground comedy barspopulated mainly by college students suchthe Romanian comedy group Divertis.Toni Grecu, one of the members ofDivertisinterviewed by Molloy, believes humourhelped the people survive the communistabsurdity.

Part of the Cold War space race,Vladimir Remek from Czechoslovakia wentinto space on the spaceship Soyuz-28 in1978. His space trip contributed to the

propagandistic ventures coming fromMoscow, but also aided his later career from his directorship at the Museumof Space and Aircraft in Prague to hismembership in the European Parliamentin 2004. Nevertheless, some managed toelude party control. Karel Gott is a famousCzech singer who got his popularity beforethe invasion of `1968 and managed toearn the public by avoiding any referenceto politics in his songs and also to obtainseveral favours from the communists who,in return, got sure the money he made were

put to good use to serve the interest of theparty.Religion was a taboo subject under

communism and each East Europeansocialist state experienced distinctly theclash between the party-state and theChurch. In Czechoslovakia the RomanCatholic, Protestant and Orthodox Churchesmanaged to survive as undergroundmovements, despite the ban they wereconfronted with. Jn Chryzostom Korecwas one of the promoters of the dissidentreligion; he managed to ordain many

priests and to practice the faith whilekeeping the appearance of an average life.He did not escape monitoring by the secretpolice and was ultimately arrested in 1960;accused of treason, Korec was convicted toprison and he was eventually rehabilitatedduring Alexander Dubceks socialismwith a human face period. The years ofNormalization that followed pushed religionto the underground once again, but, bythe second part of the 1980s, religious


13/45


14/45


15/45

374


RECENSIONES

project as a failed modernity or aggravated

by the backlogs of pre-modernity (p. 46).In this respect, the emergence of totali]tarianisms can only be understood inconnection to the unfulfilled promise ofthe modernity to free the man from anyform of social authority by the force ofreason. The Communism propagandaoften resorted to various topoi of socialhistory, trying to demonstrate that as theinjustice was spreading there was a greaterneed for the solution offered by politicalcommunism. The obvious need for social

justice updated the biblical words, comunio

bonorum, reducing them to a simpleeconomic formula. Modernity does notsucceeds in placing the man in the centreof the institutions, and, although religiousestablishments were the only oasis ofhumanity in a deeply hierarchical societyin which human dignity was given by thepersons position (p. 59), the very place ofreligion is strongly challenged.

In this context, many authors of politicalprogrammes close to utopian reverie, asit is the case of Gracchus Babeuf, denotesthe radicalization of positions towardssocial injustice: the codes and aristocraticusage must be removed as they competefor arbitrary valuation of the minority whowas endowed with them. The individualis defined exclusively by its affiliationto the nation, and private property issynonymous with the empowerment fromthe sole authority of the anonymous body.They are hierarchically subordinated to thesocial embodied by the state, that is they

just belong (to smth.), they no longer belongto themselves (p. 65). In this profoundlyinhumane landscape, authors like Wilhelmvon Ketteler appear or social Catholic

intellectuals who, even though they donot have the strength to inspire a politicalmovement capable of redirecting the courseof modernity, will be very present throughtheir reflections in the European Christian-democracy.

The subchapter dedicated to Marx startswith a question whose answer is still unclearto the audience: whether Marxism waswrong as a theory or as a practice? Or bothways? Crossing historiography with social

analysis and in some cases with theology,

the author proposes a simplistic vision onMarx: the German philosopher deliversan ideological alibi to the revolutionariesdesire for power. Noticing that proletariansare reduced to the state of merchandise inthe service of the capital, Marx does notwish to exile himself in a political awaitingand grants the workers the accelerating roleof the revolutionary process. Analyzingthe text of The Communist Manifesto,the author emphasizes the strategy ofgaining power by the Communists: theabuse, the transgression and the terror.In the end, Marx and Engels propose the

primacy of economics over human lifeand an ideology self-entitled scientific,whose basis are rationalizing governance,meaning that only following this dialecticway, the dictatorship performed by agroup in the name of a social class couldhave been thought both in terms of realpolitical representation as well as the soleobjective expression of a popular consensusunaffected by electoral fluctuations1.

The chapter entitled Reality: prole-tarian revolutions in agrarian countries, isa review of the concept of the revolution.

So, by revolution it is understood a kindof modernity specific to Enlightenmentand Marxism. It also has a religiouscharge, offering the human existence thequasi-religious force of a promise thatmust be maintained even by paying theprice of violence (p. 108). Combining thememoir images with passages from theThesis of April of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin,in his capacity of vicarius proletarium, theauthor notices the precariousness of theself-consciousness of the quasi-absentworking class from Russia and the need oforganizing the revolution by the anarchical-

communist elites. The revolution becomesa form without substance, this argument

being also valid in the case of the Marxistdoctrine; in fact a grotesque coup d tat.

1 Daniel BARBU, Un mit al totalita-rismului: colectivismul, in Lucian BOIA(ed.), Miturile comunismului romnesc, vol. II,Editura Universitii din Bucureti, Bucureti,1997, p. 79.


16/45

375


RECENSIONES

Lenin establishes the party-state and

commits a black political liturgy (p. 133),using violence translated through murderas an imperative of the revolution. Theterror unleashes with the force of Doomsdayconfirming the millennialism specific forthe revolutionary thinking of modernity,which Communism embodies perfectly. Weare witnessing rather an implementation ofwhat, for defining Marxism, Olivier Naycalled theology of revolution2. Movingonwards, religion is seen as a competitor,its place being taken by a political religion.The sole believe that one should manifest

being the one in the science of the regime to

govern them. The perpetuation of Leninsbody is one of the most grotesques aspectsof materialism and starting point of thecult of personality accurately undertaken

by the great majority of dictators. Leninwas proclaimed immortal due to theimmortality of his vision and thinking.Acting this way, Communism proves thatits real competitor is religion itself. Theperpetuation of substance replaces theholy relics, the final fall of Communismsignifying for our author the stagnation ofthe pseudo -pilgrimage of Lenins body. We

are dealing with, using E. Kantorowiczsterminology inspired by the Paulinetheology, the attempt of perpetuating boththe physical body and the political one ofthe Russian dictator3.

The death of Lenin offers Iosif V. Stalinthe opportunity to reinforce his power byinoculating fear, terror and murder. Themeans used were meant to reveal the sinof not subduing to the regime and werepaid with the exorcising the accusationsafter long physical and psychical tortures.Stalin poses as the guarantor of permanentrevolution, becoming a follow-up model for

the dictators from the Moscows influencecountries. Thus the revolutions expansion

2 Olivier Nay, Istoria ideilor politice, trad.de Vasile Savin, Polirom, Iai, 2008, p. 509.

3 Ernst H. KANTOROWICZ, The KingsTwo Bodies. A Study in Medieval PoliticalTheology, with a new preface by WilliamChester JORDAN, Princeton University Press,1997.

has various common features for the soviet

countries: imposing by force, using murderas a political method and abolishing privateproperty.

While revolutionary enthusiasm wasreplaced by the system of Communistnomenclature privileges and Easternsocieties were similar to a huge concen-tration camp in their attempt to producethe new man, Western countries werepreparing for a new challenge of politicaland economic liberalism. Thus, the year1968 becomes a symbol of ignorance:most Eastern leaders begin introducingliberal reforms and young people from

the West violently approach Marxism. TheChristian social reflections disappear fromthe concerns of the Churches from the twosides of the continent, the two comingacross one another only regarding neutraltopics like peace and poverty in third worldcountries. The communist regime focuseson producing the new man, the groupsocial revolution being followed by theindividual anthropological one (p. 188),impossible to implement. The internalresources of the Communist idea self-destruct, which creates the 1989 moment.

The chapter Disclosure: who is thevictim and who is the executioner? startsform the hypothesis according to whichassuming the Communist experience canfree the society from the risk oftrivialization of evil. The need of knowingthe Communist phenomenon is given bythe establishment of a liberal, democratand transparent society, reason why theaccusation of being an enthusiastic orforced Securitateas collaborator is repla-ced by a graver one: that of not being anhonest collaborator of freedom (p. 202).Analyzing the status of the National

Council for Studying Securitate Archives,an institution of an uncertain nature, theauthor notices the political incapacity tomake sense to a democratic project. Also,the precariousness of blaming Communist

by the civil society shows who were theanti-Communist elites: they were not thearchangels of public morals from nowadays

but the secluded monk from the monastery,the combatants from the mountains, thepeasant who opposed collectivization, etc.


17/45

376


RECENSIONES

The author methodologically separates the

civil society from the Church, particularlyfor granting special attention to theinstitution of Liberty par excellence. Thus,the Church itself must be analyzed on themain coordinates of its existence withinCommunism: surviving and staying faith-ful to Communism. Establishing threetypologies of the clergyman-collaborator,the author explains that it is impossible todraw an exact line between the compromisefor the sake of institutional survival of theChurch/diocese/monastery/parish and thecompromise for the sake of accomplishingpersonal ambitions. In spite of all these the

disclosure of files can help the Church inbuilding democracy, finding inner libertiesand prophetic calling.

The theme of the last chapter,Condemnation: the ethic dilemma ofEurope is an invitation of acknowledgingthe urgency of the Communism theme. TheCommunist political system was an atheistreligion, the Communist eschatologyallowing the use of violence in the name ofthe conversion of the new man. Europedid not reach an ethic consensus much lessa legal one in respect to reporting to the

Communist phenomenon. The Europeanattitude is the one of being warmly witha regime that in some European texts isdescribed as participating to democracy

building after the 1989-1990 revolutions. Inother words, that what should have been acathartic process, of liberation by assuminga huge intellectual and political burden,unfortunately failed, leaving the impressionthat Communism as a doctrine is good afterall and only its implementation was faulty.The gestures of condemning Communismat the national level, many times unclear

and not followed by legal consequences,are far from reaching the European ethic-political consensus. Thus, the democracydeficit of the former Communist countriesis due to the presence of former Commu-nists within the political class, whoreplaced Communism with oligarchy, andcertainly not with democracy. Does, in thiscontext, a European identity truly exist?Read from the perspective of theology, themoral rebirth of the European social tissue

cannot be based on the amnesia of tipped

apocalypse (p. 259).The authors conclusions comprisethree new lines of study, among which oneparticularly draws attention: the mannerof critical receiving Communism by thethree Christian denominations of Europe,the common theme for both theology andCommunism being that of the new man. Inthe end, Communism committed the mosthorrible and numerous (approximately100 millions) crimes against humanity inthe name of a dogmatic reasons. Between1917 and 1989 we witnessed a collation

between atheism as a substitute of religionand religious faith left as the only islandof humanity. This confrontation validatesthat fact that theoretically as well aspractically Communism and Christianityare fundamentally opposed. The first, not

being just an ideology or a political system,but having a strong and constant quasi-religious charge, that is wanting to beperceived as a eschatological teaching, mustand can be read from a social-theologicalperspective(p. 267). This social-theologicalreading of Communism determines the

author to consider the fall of Communismmore of a process of spiritual rebellion,even thought it was not perceived this way

by people on the streets.In conclusion, although, from the

perspective of political science, the presentbook does not represent an added value tothe knowledge regarding the Communismphenomenon, it deserves the credit ofopening new paths of research of theintersection between religion and politics.Sacralization of certain people, places,dates, etc. and developing rituals regarding

them shows that political religions tendto replace the traditional ones, competewith them and try to destroy them4. Also,the rethinking of Communist power as apastoral power type, in the terms of Michel

4 Juan J. LINZ, The Religious Use ofPolitics and/or the Political Use of Religion,in Hans MAIER (ed.), Totalitarism and PoliticalReligions, transl. by Jodi Bruhn, vol. I,Routledge, New York, 2004, p. 108.


18/45

377


RECENSIONES

Foucault5, which has the monopoly on

distributing wealth and demands total

5 Michel FOUCAULT, Securitate, teritoriu,populaie. Cursuri inute la Collge deFrance (1977-1978), ed. ngrijit de MichelSENELLART sub ndrumarea lui FranoisEWALD i Alessandro FONTANA, trad.de Nicolae Ionel, Idea Design & Print,Cluj-Napoca, 2009, pp. 101-190.

obedience, can be the elements necessary

for understanding the secularization phe-nomenon in the Romanian society.

CTLIN-VALENTIN RAIU

WENDY LOWERNazi Empire Building and the Holocaust in UkraineUniversity of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2005, 307 pp.

Wendy Lower is assistant professorof history at Towson University. She has aPhD in European History at the AmericanUniversity and has attended the UkrainianStudies Program at Harvard University.

As the title suggests, the book focuseson the imperialist aspirations of NaziGermany and the ethnic cleansing of the

Ukrainian Jewry. The policies regardingChristian Ukrainians, ethnic Germansin Ukraine and the Nazi bureaucraticmachinery are also analyzed in great detail

by Wendy Lower.The book is very valuable because

up until recently very few studies havebeen published about the Holocaust inUkraine, mainly because of the lack ofprimary sources of documentation. Theresearch conducted by Wendy Lower is

based on the records from the United StatesHolocaust Memorial Museum and recently

declassified documents available in postcommunist Ukraine (German records heldin former Soviet archives).

The book starts by explaining theimportance of Ukraine in the Nazi plansof a greater Reich. Hitler envisioned manyparts of Eastern Europe, and especiallyUkraine, as integral parts of the expandingReich, which had to be colonized keepingin mind the British model of imperialismin India. Hitler famously remarked in 1941:

What India was for England the territoriesof Russia will be for us (p. 24).

The Ukrainian inhabitants wereperceived by the Nazis as inferior Slavsand treated almost like Negroes in NorthAfrica, as Lower points out. Nevertheless,Nazi colonialism was first and foremostabout race and space. Considering the

fact that some ethnic Germans lived inUkraine, the Volhynian Germans, Hitlerand Reichsfhrer of the SS, HeinrichHimmler, envisioned an Aryan enclavewithin Ukraine. The enclave was createdat the expense of both the Ukrainians andethnic Germans that were resettled there,

but ultimately failed its task of becomingand autonomous flourishing district ofAryans in a sea of Slavs.

Another important aspect of Germanysinterest for this country is that Ukraine wasconsidered to be Europes breadbasket,

and was thus very desirable for the rapidlygrowing Reich, providing Germans withmuch needed grain and food supplies. TheGermans took Ukraines food supplies,Lower underlines, in the same manner inwhich the Soviets had taken them about tenyears earlier, by using force and coercivemethods. Lower also observes that, ironicallyTheir requisitions reminded Ukrainianpeasants of Soviet confiscations of grain inthe early 1930s, which resulted in the Great


19/45

378


RECENSIONES

Famine (p. 116). Ethnic Ukrainians were

also oppressed in the educational sphere,in the religious field (although it variedfrom region to region) and were forcedto work in different projects of the Nazis(constructions, agriculture, factories etc).

Lower tries, in Nazi Empire Buildingand the Holocaust in Ukraine, to provide anideological framework for understandingGerman aims and behavior in Ukraine(p. 10), focusing mainly on a colonialistcentered explanation. This marks the noveltyof her work, among the other numerousstudies regarding the Holocaust.

Also original is the focus on midleveldecision makers and the implication ofUkrainians in perpetrating the Holocaust,rather than on the higher officials in theNazi apparatus, who usually asked theirinferiors for on the spot decisions andrapid action after giving a few broadorders: This style of on the spot decisionmaking characterized the political cultureof Nazism; it was secretive, corrupt andvalued action (p. 8). What Lower arguesis that: The Nazi implementation of theFinal Solution was an ongoing invention

of central and peripheral leaders (p. 158).Lower has the great merit of putting namesand faces to local perpetrators. The authoranalyzes the entire spectrum of factors thatlead to the creation and implementation ofthe Nazi policies in Ukraine including theGermans imperial arrogance and imaginedracial superiority and their hatred towards

Jews, Slavs, and communists. These factorsand all the human faults of the perpetratorsworked together in a destructive mannerwhen it came to implementing orders fromsuperiors. Their careerism, pragmatism,

greed and fear amplified the destruction ofJudeo-Bolshevism.Interestingly enough Lower finds the

cracks in the Nazi machinery, whichmany scholars considered to have workedas perfect as a Swiss clock. The tensions

between Alfred Rosenbergs Reich Ministryfor the Occupied Eastern Territorieswhich appointed general and districtcommissars and Himmlers SS police forces,demonstrate the internal fight for being the

leading civil authority. Also, the effective

cleansing of the Ukrainian Jewry and theultimate failure of the Hegewald enclavewhere Himmler resettled 10 178 VolhynianGermans, is an example of the fact that it iseasier to destroy than create (p. 6) and thatHimmler found fertile ground in the Eastnot for German colonization, but rather forthe Holocaust (p. 179).

The Nazis did not waste time, asLower points out. Briefly after their arrivalin central Ukraine in 1941, mainly in theZhytomyr region, the Nazis, helped insome cases by Ukrainian auxiliary forces,

started a policy of systematic mass murder.Prisoners of war were also victims, but aftermid-August, regional army, SS, and policeleaders planned and carried out massacreswith the intent of destroying entire Jewishcommunities, rather than the Communistparty per se. It was at this turning pointthat the Nazis racial aims took over theirpolitical goals (p. 73).

The almost unprecedented efficiency ofthe mass murder of the Jewish populationof Ukraine, Lower thinks, is mainlydue to the outstanding cooperation and

communication between the German army,the SS, the police, the local Commissarsand the higher ranking decision makers.Also, Ukraine was one of the morespecial cases in Eastern Europe where, forexample, the Germans did not find usefulto build ghettos, but to improvise themin abandoned warehouses, schools, barnsetc. More often than not, Jews were killedon the spot, rendering the need to buildghettos obsolete.

Wendy Lower seems to be in theintentionalist, believing that the

Holocaust was well planned out fromthe beginning. Although not explicit, thisview is noticeable from the argument thatHitler wanted to cleanse Ukraine of Jewsfrom the beginning, not caring about theeconomic difficulties of this endeavor, inorder to colonize it with ethnic Germansand transform it into a Garden of Edenfor Aryans. She underlines the fact thatthe policies of destroying the Jewishpopulation and resettling ethnic Germans


20/45

379


RECENSIONES

are interconnected and that the region of

Zhytomyr was chosen from the beginningas a central base because of its potential tobecome a German enclave.

Ukrainians that were not enrolled inthe police or part of the Nazi apparatus didnot prove susceptible to Nazi incitement topogroms, although the Nazis seemed to verymuch desire it. Moreover, many Ukrainiansmanipulated the Nazi paranoia regardingthe Jewish instigators and Bolsheviksto their own economic advantage. Theygained, in many cases, houses and jobs thatremained after Jews and Communists were

removed.The timing of killing actions in theZhytomyr region was directly linked tothe arrival and presence of top leaders,who had numerous security forces attheir disposal (p. 159). The escalation ofkillings occurred whenever Nazi offici-als like Higher SS and Police Leader Jeck-len, SS-Obergruppenfhrer (General) andGeneral der Polizei Heydrich, Reichsf-hrer of the SS Heinrich Himmler or evenHitler himself visited Ukraine. This hap-pened because: Local leaders in the com-

missariat administration and the SS-policetacitly understood or received explicitinstructions that the Jews had to be remo-ved around the headquarters (p. 159).

Another characteristic that makes thecase of Ukraine stand out is the fact that,

besides the military units that conducted

mass killings, there was also the involvementof the Organization Todt, a semi-militaryorganization tasked with the constructionof military installation and highways(p. 143). The organizations implicationin the Holocaust can be observed moreevidently in the building of Hitlersheadquarters (culminating with his visit,which also escalated the killings) and theDGIV project, a highway running in theeast-west direction through Vinnytsia.Most workers, as Lower points out: wereunable to distance themselves from the

SS and police methods, and some evenparticipated in the executions (p. 145).All these characteristics add to the

exceptionality of the Ukrainian case in thecontext of Nazi imperialist aspirations inthe East and the Holocaust of the Jewishpopulation. The Holocaust in Ukrainehappened as a result of a combination offactors, Lower argues: Nazi racial policies,Prusso German militarism, and an arrogantFinal Solution approach to problem-solving and empire-building (p. 68) thatare seldom present in other cases.

The book is a must-read for Holocaust-aficionados as it paints a broader picture ofthe Nazis utopian view of territories inEastern Europe in general and Ukraine inparticular.

ALEXANDRA ILIE

RADU IOANIDHolocaustul n Romnia: distrugerea evreilor i romilor sub regimul Antonescu:

1940-1944Hasefer, 2nd ed., Bucureti, 2006, 468 pp.

Keen to uncover Romanias hiddenrecent past, Radu Ioanid sought in the early1990s to identify references relevant forthe Romanian Holocaust (p. 11). Needlessto say, this was far from being an easy task,and it took many more years and efforts forthe author to achieve and presents us the

final result of his work, a comprehensivehistorical account of the tragic events thatmarked our history in the 1930s and 1940s.

Published in 2006, Holocaustul nRomnia is written in the form of a narrationof the historical data and documents theauthor managed to gather throughout his


21/45

380


RECENSIONES

research activity and thus pertains to the

historical genre. To begin with, the authorgives a complete account of the persecutionsof the Romanian Jewry, even prior to the1940-1944 period, by proceeding with ananalysis of the legal status of the Jewishminority in Romania before the fascistperiod, arguing that the first juridicalanti-Semitic measures were adopted inthe Romanian Principalities of the XVIcentury (p. 21). However, the main time-span on which the book focuses on is thatof the late XIX-mid XX century, as it was aperiod in which the Romanian legislation

referring to Jews develops under ethnicand religious discrimination, acquiringwell-defined features (p. 21). Buildinghis arguments on legal acts passed by thesuccessive Romanian governments, he thenanalyses the fascist anti-Semitic legislationduring 1940-1944, beginning with Carol IILaw-Decree no. 2 560 which establishedthe legal status of the Jews in Romania,and shortly followed by the Law-Decreeno. 2 561 which prohibited the marriages

between Romanians of blood and Jews(p. 34). In addition, Radu Ioanid also presents

the discriminations faced by the RomanianJewry in various fields such as the military,the medical and the educational one.

In the second part of his book, theRomanian historian identifies and sub-sequently analyzes the massacres committedagainst the Jews prior to the out-break ofthe Second World War, particularly in theperiod between July 1940 and February1941, with reference to the activitiesperpetrated by the legionaries, as well asto the January 1941 pogrom of Bucharest.Although the repressive activities in this

period were rather sporadic and variedacross regions with important differencesin terms of application and degree ofviolence employed (pp. 71-77) the purgesfrom professional positions, religiousrestrictions, the forced labor or the boycottsof the Jewish shops among many otherabusive measures, which culminated withspontaneous violent aggressions againstthe Jewish population, they are particularlyimportant to note in view of acquiring a

complete background understanding of the

complexity of the Romanian holocaust.Then, with the pogrom of Iai (June,26th, 1941), PhD. Ioanid begins the actualanalysis of the massacres occurring duringthe Second World War, which is actuallythe most interesting part of the book. Themethod he employs is not only dedicated torevealing in great detail the given specifichistorical accounts, but it is also a plastic one,portraying through numerous descriptionsand narrations of real cases the tragedies ofthe time. Hence, it appears that, in additionto the looting, the arbitrary mass detentions

and the property confiscations, a largenumber of Jews were actually murderedon the streets, sometimes even by civilians.A further particularity of the Iai pogromwas the usage of the so-called trains of death:Those were goods trains hermeticallysealed [] the windows were blocked withnailed boards, so that it was very difficult to

breathe. Communist Jews or Murderersof the German and Romanian soldierswas written on them (pp. 119-120). Onthis gloomy note, the author subsequentlypresents other such cases of mass killings

on the Romanian territory, namely thoseof Bucovina, Basarabia and particularly inTransnistria.

Furthermore, a special chapter of thebook focuses on the Roma people, entitledThe Deportation and the Exterminationsof the Gypsies. It is a very brief chapterwith very few novelties, but it is importantto note that, as in the case of the Jewishminority, the Romas were deported in anabusive and aggressive manner to Oceacov.The problem with the deportation of theRoma minority was that they committed

many petty crimes wherever they madea halt the stole whatever they found(p. 341) and as the winter grew near, theydestroyed and burned whatever theyfound of wood (p. 341).

By contrast with the mass killingspreviously analyzed, in the seventhchapter ofHolocaustul n Romnia Ioanidpresents the destiny of the Romanian Jewswho managed to survive the genocidalactions of the Antonescu regime. From this


22/45

381


RECENSIONES

perspective, he argues that in spite of the

pogrom of Iai, in spite of the deportationsfrom Basarabia and Bucovina, and thedisaster of Transnistria, a large segmentof the Jewish population in Romania, wasin 1942 still alive (p. 347). Also, due tothe turn of events towards the end of theSecond World War which prevented thedeportation of the Jews in Moldova andMuntenia, the lives of approximately 300000 souls were spared (p. 361). In addition,the author continues by briefly introducingthe readers to the conditions and historicaldevelopments which led to the return ofthe Jewish survivors from Transnistria, aswell as by offering a short account on thefate of the Jewish minorities of Romanianorigin outside the Romanian borders, anaccount which intriguingly completes theimage of the persecution of the Romanian

Jewish minority.On a final note, under a very provo-

cative heading Antonescu i evreii theRomanian historians attempt of syste-mizing Antonescus attitudes, decreesand anti-Semitic convictions seems to beinevitably repeating some of the informationalready presented throughout the book, indifferent chapters. Even though his needto emphasize the leading role played byIon Antonescu in the Romanian holocaustis understandable, it would probably nothave been necessary to devote it a specialchapter, but instead it would have beenmore interesting to offer an account of thetrials to which the Romanian war criminalswere subjected later on1.

Moreover, the book also falls short interms of analyzing the Jewish emigrations,particularly if compared with Nora Levins

book

2

in which she develops on the Jewishmigrations towards Palestine. This is asignificant weakness of Radu Ioanids book,as the purpose of the book was, as stated inthe introduction, to offer a new, complete

1 The author does offer such an account,but too briefly, see pp. 416-417.

2 Nora LEVIN,The Holocaust, The Destructionof European Jewry, 1933-1945, Thomas Y. GrowellCompany, New York, 1968.

account of the events of the Romanian

holocaust.Similarly,Holocaustul n Romnia dealsrather superficially with the other religiousand ethnic minority groups persecutedduring the Antonescu regime, focusingon the Roma minority as a representativecategory. Nevertheless, the author givesa too narrower account of these events,again, by reference to the professed aim ofthe book.

However, one of the first and mostimportant features of this book is that itoffers a highly detailed, thorough, historicalaccount of the events of 1940-1944, anaccount which aims towards authenticityand, judging by the variety of resourcesand documents employed, it is obviouslyan exceptional core, mandatory historicalresearch work for the readers interestedin acquiring an in-depth knowledge onthe topic. Drawing heavily on MatatiasCarps Cartea Neagr3 Ioanids devotementto pursue authenticity is best expressedthrough the numerous occasions on whichhe lists the names of the Jewish victims.Perhaps this aspect is debatable, as somereaders might not be interested in the names

of persons dead for over half of a century,but we should take into account that theHolocaust is more than a mere statistic it isa phenomenon beyond numbers, as humanlives cannot be reduced to any type ofquantifications. From this perspective, theauthors effort to restore the importance ofthe lives of the victims is one note-worthy.

A further essential aspect is thestyle used by Radu Ioanid. Basically, theRomanian author focuses on the repor-torial style specific to historical books.Nevertheless, it should also be noted that

he makes use of narrative and descriptivetechniques as well, techniques which helpthe reader not only learn about the events ofthe Romanian holocaust, but also relate tothem, in an emphatic understanding whichvery few books of the historical genre areable to provide.

3 Matatias CARP, Cartea neagr, vol. I-III,Socec, Bucureti, 1946-1947.


23/45

382


RECENSIONES

In addition to the stylistic techniques,

the gloomy portraying of the 1940-1944events is furthermore enhanced by thephotographs displayed at the end of the book.Dramatic and explicit, these photographsgreatly contribute to the emphatic under-standing previously mentioned. However,the readers must bear in mind that thoseare only minor glimpses of a gigantic grimand gloomy historical picture.

On the whole, Radu Ioanids Holoca-

ustul n Romnia is a very clearly struc-tured historical work, interesting andinstructive at the same time, particularlyfocusing on the persecutions against the

Jewish minority of Romania, with a briefaccount on the Roma victims, which con-stitute a great starting point for furtherresearch.

CRISTINA MANOLACHE

ZOLTN ROSTSStrada Latin nr. 8. Monografiti i echipieri gustieni la Fundaia Cultural RegalPrincipele CarolCurtea Veche, seria Actual, Bucureti, 2009, 384 pp.

Strada Latin nr. 8 continue la sriede volumes dhistoire orale de lcolesociologique de Bucarest dirige parDimitrie Gusti (1880-1955): Monografia cautopie (Paideia, 2000), Sala luminoas(Paideia, 2003), Parcurs ntrerupt (Paideia,2006). La grande majorit des interviewsde cette longue srie avec des membres delcole a t ralise par Zoltn Rosts de1984 1987, avec des complments aprs1996. La stratgie de lauteur a t de faireces interviews avec le but explicite de nepas les publier cause du climat politiqueet de la censure inhrente au rgimecommuniste roumain des annes 1980.Cest ce qui, explique Rosts, a permis sesinterlocuteurs de parler plus librement.

Le matriel dhistoire orale gardeavec tant de patience a pu tre publidans le nouveau contexte de laprs 1989pour se constituer ds le dbut dans unprojet intellectuel et documentaire uniquepour la sociologie roumaine et pour sessources. Les trs nombreux interviewsavec les lves de Dimitrie Gusti et avecles collaborateurs de lcole sont autantde tmoignages sur le rle du matredans la constitution de la sociologieroumaine, sur les rapports humains entre

les disciples, sur la vie quotidienne dessociologues de lentre-deux-guerres et surleurs parcours intellectuels et scientifiques.Mais la dmarche de Zoltn Rosts travers ses questions bien diriges est aussidoffrir au lecteur le panorama social de laprofession de sociologue de lpoque et delui permettre de saisir le fonctionnement etla dynamique des diffrentes institutionsprsides ou cres par Gusti.

En tant que directeur gnral de laFondation Culturelle Royale Le PrinceCharles de 1934 1939, Dimitrie Gusti amodernis son activit et la dirige vers lemonde rural. Les interviews du volumeStrada Latinnr. 8rendent compte de lactivitculturelle dans les villages de la fondationdont le sige se trouvait au numro 8 de larue Latin. Dans les annes 1934-1938, ladmarche de Gusti consistait organiserdes quipes dtudiants volontaires dontle but tait dintervenir dans le mondevillageois pour moderniser ses pratiquesen matire dhygine, dducation,dagriculture, de savoirs techniques etc. Lesinterlocuteurs de lauteur de la premirepartie du livre Gheorghe Foca, GheorgheLzrescu, Gheorghe Macarie, ConstantinMarinescu, Elena Neamu, Octavian


24/45


25/45

384


RECENSIONES

permettent de lancer lhypothse selon

laquelle le faible degr de mobilisationinstitutionnelle partisane a permis aux deuxvolontarismes extrmes, celui tatique etcelui de la Lgion, doccuper un vide dansune socit en grande majorit rurale.

Ldition est signaler avec unglossaire dtaill des personnes; avec une

bibliographie sur la priode traite parles interviews et sur luvre de DimitrieGusti; et avec un dossier photographique

sur le sociologue, sur le Service Social et sur

les quipes dtudiants (avec un nombre dephotographies de larchive personnelle deZoltn Rosts). Lensemble constitue uninstrument indispensable pour les spcia-listes de lhistoire politique et socialeroumaine dans la priode de lentre-deux-guerres.

SILVIA MARTON

JOERG C. TREMMELA Theory on Intergenerational JusticeEarthscan, London, 2009, 280 pp.

A Theory of Intergenerational Justiceattempts to answer the questions raised

by intergenerational justice, a topic thatstill lacks a proper comprehensive theory.Tremmel dedicates a chapter to each ofthe following questions: why should we careabout intergenerational justice?, how shouldwe act to provide it?, and what is the way to

implement it?A positive aspect in Tremmels work is

the input in clarifying concepts and definingthem in such a way that their meaning

becomes very specific and workable. In fact,whole chapters and subchapters are dedicatedsolely to defining the concept of generationsand classifying them in order to establishwhich makes the object of this theory. Infact, one of the main elements by which theauthor distinguishes his theory from otherworks in the same field is the inclusion of

both overlapping and non-overlapping sets

of generations, something that would havenot been logically possible without the priordefinition and classification.

Tremmels response to the generalcritique brought to theories of interge-nerational justice is generally a properone, and even if at times he resorts toexplanations issued by other authors, itserves well to fulfill the purpose of refutingtwo of the main arguments against the

whole concept of liability towards futuregenerations.

The first argument asserting the futilityof even debating intergenerational justice isthe so-called nonidentity problem, residingvery much on basic genetics and claimingthat if a parent were to behave differently,their children wouldnt have been born and

as a consequence the individual belongingto the future generation might owe theirutter existence to the unjust behaviorof the previous generations. Accordingto Tremmel, however, the emphasis thisargument places on individual action andresponsibility is the main reason why it isunfeasible to reject intergenerational justiceon such a basis; theories in this field are atleast at this moment in time a lot closerto philosophy than law and any attemptto criticize them by setting arguments ondifferent grounds is pointless. Also, another

argument put forward by the author is thatone shouldnt make claims in the name ofwhat would have been without due tothe unpredictability of alternative history(the butterfly effect argument).

A second claim attempting to refutethe whole concept of intergenerational

justice is the claim that future generationscannot have rights in the present sincethey do not exist yet, assertion made by


26/45

385


RECENSIONES

authors such as Winfred Beckerman1.

What Tremmel does is to counter anassertion which rests with the philosophyof rights by moving the discussion in thefield of ethics, deliberately avoiding thehuman rights terminology and foundinghis argument on practical responsibilitytowards the future generations. This isall but the wrong way to answer critique,since it does not prove the invalidity of theargument one is trying to refute, but insteadtries to counterbalance it; to the objectionthat future individuals have no rights inthe present, Joerg Tremmel puts forward

the assertion that present generations havea moral duty towards people who wouldsuffer the consequences in the comingdecades. This way Beckerman is right inputting forward his argument (all the moresince as compared to Tremmel he does nottake into account overlaping generations)and he is not contradicted, but invited tosee things from an ethical perspective.

Otherwise, Tremmels response togeneral critique of theories of justice for thefuture generations is very well constructedin the sense that it systematically addresses

these claims by providing both the inappro-priate arguments and the correct ones (atleast from his perspective) to defendinginterest in intergenerational justice.

Tremmel discusses the goals of inter-generational justice that, according to hisreasoning, can be defined along two majorlines. One of them is the capital approach ofmaking sure that future generations havethe proper means for satisfying their needs(be it natural capital, real capital, financialcapital, societal capital etc.). The methodfor evaluating the approach is the pursuit

of an analysis involving all types of capitalinvolved, with general characteristics as wellas specificities. The author however arguesthat this is not the most appropriate societalgoal to be dealt with when discussing

1 Winfred BECKERMAN, The Impossibi-lity of a Theory of Intergenerational Justice, inJoerg TREMMEL,Handbook of IntergenerationalJustice, Edgar Elgar Publishing, London, 2006,pp. 92-124.

intergenerational justice, and the reasons he

offers are multiple: issues of quantificationwhen it comes to human, social or culturalcapital, challenges of irreplaceable goods,disagreement when choosing between thestrong sustainability approach and theweak sustainability doctrine.

Tremmel employs the same methodwhen analyzing the well being proposal,which according to him is the more appro-priate axiological goal when discussing

justice for future generations. The issue thatarises now is defining well being, since itcan be regarded as a multilateral concept,

involving satisfaction, pleasure or utility.Ultimately, the question is what needsfulfilling? and the answer can be pointedeither to needs, rights, interests or wishes.On the other hand, another issue at handthe author analyzes is the dynamic natureof these elements, whether for instanceall generations do have the same needs.Tremmel asserts his preference for the well

being approach by resorting to what heconsiders to be the basic general goal ofhuman behavior of all sort, that is to saywe all have needs that have to be fulfilled.

All in all, the author justifies his choice bymeans of an ethical utilitarian discourserather than deontological rhetoric, since theway he sees it, fulfilling needs and notsome self standing principles such as virtue is the ultimate goal of human beings.

According to the author, and righ-tfully so, intragenerational relations differenormously from intergenerational rela-tions. By comparison, intergenerational

justice is a no-mans-land for traditionalethics so that it is unlikely for any existingtheory of justice to apply reasonably at the

level of the intergenerational, therefore theneed for new theories to deal with this fieldand this field only.

However, Tremmel resorts to seekinggeneral principles in traditional justicetheories that could be adapted to fit aview on intergenerational justice, evenif there is no overall agreement on whatintragenerational justice is or should be.The starting point is Rawls theory and theconcepts of equal position and ignorance


27/45

386


RECENSIONES

veil, to suggest that justice implies first

and foremost impartiality and to makeup models of future development basedupon both egalitarian and non-egalitarianpremises. However, Rawls did not consideraspects such as environmental issues anddisregards any sort of axiological questions.

An alternative is thinking of justicein terms of equal treatment in equal casesand unequal treatment in unequal cases,which would emphasize the relation bet-ween justice and elements such as perfor-mance, effort and needs. Applied to theintergenerational context, each modeltriggers, according to Tremmel, differentresults. To give an example, distributive

justice is less to encourage progress thanopportunity justice.

The conclusion reached by theauthor is that reciprocity justice best fitsintergenerational justice, since it impliesan utilitarian incentive when it comes todealing with future generations. In the caseof non-overlapping generations, an indirectform of reciprocity can be employed to bindpresent generations, but this relationshipcan have no foreseeable use for utilitarianpremises, but should rather resort to the

Kantian principle of duty a duty of theliving for those that will be born aftertheir demise. Put simply, since the presentgeneration has inherited good conditionsfrom the past generations, they have theduty to ensure future generations shallenjoy good conditions as well.

Tremmel dedicates much of his theoryto issues such as ecology and economicswhich he considers to be the main focus of

justice for future generations. However, he

disregards some other important aspectsthat should have had a place in a theoryon the legacy of the present; for instancewhen it comes to politics, he barelymentions any obligation towards the futuregenerations (i.e. leaving behind a worldtorn by international conflicts that wouldsurvive for generations). A remote causeis that Tremmel seems to refer to futuregenerations in a global context, ignoring toa large extent political entities and therefore,

by being general and vague, the modelsproposed are to a large extent restricted tothe areas the author discussed.

Another point I consider important isthe fact that Tremmel takes for granted thecurrent mindset and proposes a theory thathe wants to be universal in time, thereforedisregarding both factual (therefore prac-tical) and philosophical (related especiallyto paradigms and mindsets) dynamicssocieties might face in the future. As such,this poses a serious question to how thetheory could apply to larger time span.

Otherwise,A Theory of IntergenerationalJustice provides good grounds for a moreelaborate doctrine to offer justice to future

generations in relation to the behavior ofpresent individuals. Its considerations withrespect to the basic concepts are very wellargued and might provide a perennial

background for discussions on the issue,which is all the more important whentaking into account that we are dealingwith a relatively new field of research.

ADRIAN DOBRE

NANCY T. AMMERMAN (ed.)Everyday Religion. Observing Modern Religious LiveOxford University Press, 2007, XIII+243 pp.

A rosary dangling by a rear-viewmirror, a political speech delivered at aPro-Life funeral, a Christmas celebrationin a public school or the oath of investiturein a political function all public testimo-

nies of a Personal Jesus expected to beconfined in the private sphere. This clearinfringement on the classical Durkheimianseparation of sacred and profane raises aseries of questions marks with respect to


28/45

387


RECENSIONES

the definition of religion and its role in

nowadays society, thus contesting the well-established theory of privatization1 ofreligion.

In 2003, these intriguing questionmarks spurred a series of animated discu-ssions between several well-known socio-logists gathered in Boston, among whichGrace Davie, Enzo Pace or Nancy T.Ammerman. The end result of their livelydebate was a compilation of articles underthe name of Everyday Religion. ObservingModern Religious Lives, published in 2007.Recurring to observations and interviews,

sprinkled with personal insight andanalysis of collected data, the authorsdemise the theory of secularization. Theystate that religion is very much alive in thepresent pluralistic society, even manifestingthe stubbornness of not being confined tothe private sphere. Its lively character iscomplemented by a high level of diversityin a modern context characterized bytransnationalism, urbanization or masscommunication. Also, a great emphasis islaid on the individual religious beliefs andexperiences, whose dynamics is seen as

a proof of the flourishing of religion. In anutshell, the diverse character of religion andthe individual-based inquiring perspectiveoffer an insight into the nowadays religiousbricolage, as coined by the sociologistDanile Hervieu-Lger.

Moreover, the structure of the bookconsists of a Forwardwritten by Peter L.Berger and three parts, namely TraditionsDislodged but Not Lost, Religion out ofPlace and Producing Everyday ReligiousLives. Each of the three divisions examinesone key-aspect of the metamorphosis of

nowadays religion, together offering anencompassing and challenging sociologicalanalysis. If the first chapter deals withthe institutional aspect of religion and itsreaction to the modern changes, the secondpart focuses on the capacity of religion tocross-cut boundaries, thus blurring the

1 Thomas LUCKMANN, The Invisible Reli-gion: The Problem of Religion in Modern Society,McMillan, New York, 1967.

distinctions private public and secular

sacred. Last but not least, the thirdpart is an inquiry into religion that goesbeyond sacred institutions and theologicaldoctrines, entering into the private lives ofindividuals and into the social and culturalcontexts of their lives.

It is true that the empirical aspectof this sociological inquiry is focusedon the American context, yet there areseveral examinations on the cases of GreatBritain, Sweden, Italy and Spain. Theseinquiries in the European sphere giveway to a comparison between the two

parts of the Atlantic. On the one hand,the image of a more secular Europe isrevealed, characterized by a decline in theinstitutional aspect of religion or a vicariousreligiosity. By contrast, the American casereveals the paradox of a society highlydeveloped and strongly religious. Thisreligiosity is manifested not only in the

believing sphere but also in the behavingdimension, when religious beliefs arealready institutionalized.

Furthermore, a sketched presentationof the articles encompassed in each of

the three categories will reveal a series ofnew concepts and innovative perspectivesput forward by the authors. Grace Daviedemonstrates that religious institutions andtraditions have not disappeared but havedeveloped different ways of manifestationand channels of influences. In this respect, sheintroduces the concept ofvicarious religion2,where vicars play the role of representativesfor the community of believers, especiallyduring critical moments of life, such asdeath, suffering, marriage, birth etc. EnzoPace follows this course of argument and

presents the case of the Catholic Church inEurope, stressing the improvising capacityof its leaders to communicate religioussymbols in tune with the spiritual needsof the modern individual. Moreover,Lynn Davidman makes an inquiry into

2 Grace DAVIE, Vicarious Religion:A Methodological Challenge, in Nancy T.AMMERMAN (ed.), Everyday Religion, OxfordUniversity Press, 2007, p. 22.


29/45

388


RECENSIONES

how religious heritage can influence the

lives of individuals who do not perceivesthemselves as being religious. Such is thecase of the unaffiliated Jewish Americanswho perceive their Jewishness bothas an ascriptive characteristic acquiredthrough birth and as an achievement,

being the result of the choices they make.Furthermore, the last two articles written

by Lynn Schofield Clark and Mia Lvheimfocus on the youth, inquiring into how theoff-line and on-line media shape the imagethat young people have about religion andreligious institutions.

Furthermore, the second part ofthe book opens with an article by PeggyLevitt, treating in detail the relation

between religion and immigration in atransnational context. Her main focus isAmerica, presented as a melting pot ofreligious values, traditions and affiliation.Here, the immigration process influences

both the American religiosity and theindividual religious system of the migr.Furthermore, a clear example of thenowadays permeability of boundaries is thecase of the Pro-Life movement put forward

by Ziad Munson. By introducing theconcept ofpolysemous events3, he increasesthe level of connectivity between religionand politics up to the point where a socialevent can acquire simultaneously a politicaland a religious meaning.

The same permeability of boundaries ispresented in the article by Paul Lichterman,A Place on the Map: Communicating Reli-gious presence in Civic Life. In this case,religious-focused groups and religiouscommunities, who share a norm of commu-nity involvement4, have the power and

the means to get actively involved in thesecular public sphere. Furthermore, John P.Bartkowski downsizes the social constructfrom religious organization to family,

3 Ziad MUNSON, When the FuneralIsnt Just a Funeral: The Layered Meaning ofEveryday Action, in Ibidem, p. 123.

4 Paul LICHTERMAN, A Place on theMap: Communicating Religious Presence inCivil Life, in Ibidem, p. 142.

inquiring into the relation between families

and religion in the Evangelical Christianity.Furthermore, the last part of the bookmakes an inquiry into how the individualdevelops his everyday religion when beingunsatisfied by doctrines put forward bysacred institutions. These expressions oflived religion can be created either throughliterature, such as in the article presented

by Kelly Besecke, or through embodiedexperiences as in the case presented byMeredith McGuire.

Furthermore, the book ends in a circularmanner, with an article also by Nancy T.

Ammerman, namely Studying EverydayReligion: Challenges for the Future.Having the character of a conclusion, theauthor emphasises on the necessity of a newsociological perspective on religion, whichshould encompass both a micro vision ofeveryday religious manifestations and amacro level of religious social communitiesand institutions. In order to better grasp the

blossom of religious diversity, we shouldnot limit the boundaries of religion only tothe traditional sacred principles, embeddedin the culture of a nation and promoted by

religious institutions. The study of modernreligion requires an equal attention tothe official version, preached by repre-sentatives of a sacred establishments orreligious communities, and to the way

believers live their religion in everydaylife.

What is more, the modern world ischaracterized by an annulment of boun-daries; thus different spheres of activity

become more and more intertwined sym-bols and identities overcrossing theirspecific sphere of influence.5 In this respect,

the debatable issue on the relation betweenthe sacred ad the secular is unlikely to besettled with the solution Render there-fore unto Caesar the things which areCaesars and unto God the things thatare Gods6. In a world characterized

5 Ziad MUNSON, When the FuneralIsnt Just a Funeral ...cit., p. 133.

6 Matthew 22:21, 21st Century King JamesVersion.


30/45


31/45

390


RECENSIONES

the fact that her research mainly focuses

on the role of the culture and context inthe issues of prevention, with a specialfocus upon the HIV and substance abuseprevention, two of the most grave issuesthat affect mostly the African Americancommunities, as the book also shows inthe final chapters, alongside these mattersshe has also published extensively and has

been an invited speaker on topics of genderand women abuse.

Another element of both novelty andgreat interest that could be encounteredall throughout the book, is the fact that

the authors take into consideration animportant indicator such as the primaryattribute of the African American culture,that is the usage and relevance of theancient African proverbs, an indicator ofthe ancient wisdom that is still relevantin spite of the clear evolution of thementality and manner of thinking of thevarious African American communities allthroughout the American continent. Thesepieces of knowledge and wisdom are oftenpresented in opposition or, on the contrary,overlapping with the modern new stories

that derive from the everyday lives of thesedifferent communities, thus proving theirimportance that has transcended both thetime and space dimensions.

Leaving aside the more generalpresentation of this particular piece ofliterature, I shall start by pointing out thefact that the text is structured in four mainsections, each of them dealing with clearlydifferentiated, however connected whentrying to capture the general imagine,problematic, as I shall briefly demonstratewith a short summary of each of these

sections.Therefore, the first section explains ina comprehensive manner the methodologyused, its roots and significance within theBlack Studies department, brings forth ashort, however interesting history of thisparticular area of research. Alongsideimportant theoretical elements andapproaches pertaining to various influentialProfessors within the Africentric Studiesfield, the two authors also place their focus

upon the development and the growing

interest of the academic world towardsthese areas of research outside the bordersof the United States.

The second and the most consistentsection, follows the evolution of the basicsocial systems and structures throughoutcenturies, studies centered upon themost important elements defining theAfrican American community: family andkinship. The two authors follow closelythe trajectory and evolutionary processof the African American family duringthe Enslavement period, projecting both

interesting and relevant stories that capturethe soul and the unity of the African descentfamily as a whole, onto the Emancipationand Reconstruction historical stages, theMigration towards the Northern areas,seen as a highly important process, reasons

behind it and issues regarding adaptationamidst the new societies, and here theauthors place their focus upon devoidinga number of myths and images that havepersisted throughout history, and howthese particular changes have affected theconstruction and evolution of the family

environment. However, these changesillustrated on the basis of African Americancases are not taken out of their context,

but on the contrary, the authors are keenon outlining the fact that important socialchanges have affected the structure andevolution of the family irrespective of raceand ethnicity, their main concern being thatof analyzing the manner in which thesechanges have been handled by the AfricanAmerican communities, and to be morespecific, these illustrations are based uponcases of single parent-headed households

especially the single mothers cases,childhood poverty, teen mothers, evolutionsregarding marriage, divorce, remarriageand cohabitation and the direct relationof these elements with the various religious

beliefs and values, the changing role of thegrandmother. Following these elements,the authors choose to tackle the delicateissue of racial socialization, the mainproblems posed from the very beginningafter the Emancipation and Migration


32/45

391


RECENSIONES

events. Deriving directly from this short

introduction, the authors allocate a wholechapter on the impact of the oppression anddiscriminatory policies imposed upon theAfrican American families, starting withthe Jim Crow Era historical moment.

The next focus of the second sectionof the book is placed upon another delicatemanner: the educational systems. The intro-ductory chapter brings forth precise dataregarding the demography of the Americaneducational landscape, continuing witha discussion upon the over placement ofAfrican Americans in Special Education,

the alternative education and the difficultand often hard to envisage historical path,and I dear say, struggle, towards achievingequal educational access and equal chancesdistributed to young African Americans(with a special focus upon the matter of theHigher Education and the real chances theAfrican descent youths have even in presenttimes). An eloquent and objective analysisfollows, as a continuation of the chaptersdedicated to education and the real chancesof pursuing a specific career for the AfricanAmericans, the well-known and debated

issue of the hoods or ghettos as theyare perceived by their inhabitants, and themanner in which these communities livingwithin these neighborhoods encourage andreflect a certain violent behavior among theAfrican American youths.

The third section of the book dealswith individual and developmental pro-cesses, that is the particular manner inwhich various attachments come to occur,the way that they are shaped, alongsidethe family relationships, the way in whichgender differences in friendships are

regarded and overcome, if that be the case,but the most important part in the chapterscomposing the third section is the oneallocated to the analysis of the interracialintercourse namely, friendships, howdo they function, if they function? thechanges that have resulted in time and haveshaped these relations, also an interestingand comprehensive analysis, that closes thesection, was developed upon the delicateissue of interracial romance and marriage,

the possibility, the increase in number of

these types of marriages, the impossibilityof such events to occur until the more recenttimes, the problems it still posses, and thedangers it faced throughout history.

Finally, the fourth and final sectionof the book deals primarily with thehealth issues, illnesses and disabilities thataffected, and still affect to a great extent, theAfrican American communities, problemsthat are presented in direct relation with theway health promotion, disease preventionand health care utilization have beenmade available by the authorities, starting

from the legislative and ending with thebasic personnel, the great racial prejudiceproblems that are still very much presentnowadays in some areas in the UnitedStates, although, as the authors point outvery well, much progress has been madein this respect from the top level, in thelast decades. The last major debated issue,and as I have mentioned at the beginningof the review the main area of research ofDr. Belgrave, is the level of the drug use andabuse, the types of substances and relevantdata pointing out the real threat that these

issues represent especially for the AfricanAmerican communities. In this respect,Dr. Belgrave offers an important insighton the historical evolution of the druguse within these communities, startingfrom the Drug Use in Africa withshamanic and magical, but also withmedicinal purposes, continuing withdrug usage during the Slave trade periodand afterwards following the Civil War,drugs diversified and used before, duringand after the Great Depression, onto the70s and slowly coming to our present times.

A short history of violence, aggressionand crime some would say after taking aclose look on this account, nonetheless theproblems and questions it posses are quiteinteresting as they do not reflect solelythe African American community, but thewhole of the American society.

As to conclude, I will restate the factthat the concise and less pretentious styleof the book, its interesting approach bycombining the most relevant African


33/45

392


RECENSIONES

American and Africentric Psychology theo-

ries and operational concepts with the well-placed and generally applicable pieces ofAfrican ancient wisdom, alongside theundisputable value in terms of research andnovelty in the general field of Psychologyoffer this piece of literature a character

of uniqueness and determine it to be a

must reading for those that want to fullyunderstand the meanings that lie beneaththe African American culture and tradition,and its shaping throughout history.

DANA BERDIL

ANTHONY DOWNSO teorie economic a democraiei1Romanian transl. by erban CerkezInstitutul European, Iai, 2009, 398 pp.

The Romanian translation of Downsseminal work is to be acknowledged1as a necessary effort in closing the gap

between Western research and Romaniantranslations. In almost all fields, butespecially in political science a scientificfield under severe ideological constraintduring the communist era , we still have tomake such efforts to translate basic scientificliterature that was lacking for decades. It

is worth to remember the distance in timebetween the first editions of the books andtheir Romanian translations: six decades forthe Peoples Choice2, four decades for the CivicCulture3 and three decades for the Polyarchy4,to only name three essential books in the

1 Anthony DOWNS,An Economic Theory ofDemocracy, New York, Addison-Wesley, 1957.

2 Paul F. LAZARSFELD, BernardBERELSON, Hazel GAUDET, The People'sChoice: How the Voter Makes Up His Mind in a

Presidential Campaign, Duell, Sloan and Pearce,New York, 1944 (Romanian ed.: Mecanismulvotului. Cum se decid alegtorii ntr-o campanieprezidenial, transl. by S. Drgan, comunicare.ro, Bucureti, 2004).

3 Gabriel A. ALMOND, Sidney VERBA,Cultura civic. Atitudini politice i democraie ncinci naiuni, Romanian transl. by Dan Pavel,Editura Du Style, Bucureti, 1996.

4 Robert A. DAHL, Poliarhiile. Participarei opoziie, Romanian transl. by M. Sadovschi,Institutul European, Iai, 2000.

field. Yet we have not translated Parties andParty Systems5 or Political Action6.

Acknowledging that throughout theworld governments dominate the eco-nomic scene by spending, taxes, policiescontrol in international trade and domesticregulations, Downs effort in this classic

book is to progress towards a generalizedyet realistic behavior for a rationalgovernment similar to the rules traditio-

nally used for rational consumers andproducers. Therefore, he is one of the firstto attempt to provide such a behavior rulefor democratic government and to traceits implications. For the beginning, let us

briefly present Downs model. First of all,we have to clearly identify the meaningof rationality in the model. As underlined

by Downs, economic theorists have nearlyalways looked at decisions as though theywere made by rational minds. Economicanalysis thus consists of two major steps:discovery of the ends a decision-maker is

pursuing, and analysis of which meansof attaining them are most reasona

Recenzie Anthony Downs politica comparata, eng

Documents

Transcript of Recenzie Anthony Downs politica comparata, eng