Democratic transition and disillusionment: The case of Romania

The post-communist transition in Romania has been a period rife with high hopes and expectations as well as strong disappointments and disillusions. These disillusions have too often been confused with either political apathy or direct reactions to corruption, insecurity and poverty, thus resisting an in-depth examination of the phenomena of disillusionment as an altogether separate concern. This project tries to rectify that by providing a redefinition of the concept of disillusionment in light of the loss of certain strong illusions. Equating the ideology of both communism and capitalism with a particular set of social, political and economic illusions, propagated through different sets of both state and market mechanisms, this project focuses on how some of those illusions were built, maintained and later lost and grieved. The points of entrance for this examination are the 1989 Romanian Revolution along with its contested ideals and illusions, the period immediately following the Revolution marked by the emergence of so-called civil society institutions and the illusions surrounding their role in the democratization process, and finally, an examination of present Romania, fifteen years into the transition, reflecting back on the shock of the transition and its effects on the Romanian landscape---city and ruralscape---and the Romanian people. The birth, development and later loss of each of these illusions marked the beginning of a redefinition of the relationship between state and society, and more importantly, the relationship between present, past and future.