*Student Conference:*
*Twenty years of democracy*
*Perspectives on post-communism in Central and Eastern Europe*
*The 16th -17th of April, 2010*
Political Science Department*, University of Bucharest*
*Deadline for abstract submission: the 10th of March, 2010*
In Central and Eastern Europe, the fall of communism opened the path to democracy, a choice acknowledged - in Pierre Manent’s words- as the unique universal „political religion”. The communism represented in this region one of the most complicated projects of readjustment of the political, social, economic and cultural values. As a consequence, its demise involved a complex „reinvention of politics” (Tismaneanu) : from the shift toward new principles and rules to the reconfiguration of the social and political paradigm.
The struggle to move from a single party system to a multiparty party one, the restructuring of the civil society, the institutional state reform, the uncertainties regarding the foundations of the democratic legitimacy, the protection of human rights and the difficulties that ethnic, cultural and religious minorities have to deal with – are all issues that continue to generate fierce theoretical debates.
The process of democratization was interpreted in various ways. Some
political scientists set the limits of this process to a rather “technical” evaluation by applying a set of criteria included in an index of democracies elaborated by different international bodies. Others, like Dahrendorf, insist on the time span necessary to build an authentic democracy; he considers that the economic and political changes within the system insufficiently strengthen a democratic state in the absence of a civic society. Moreover, authors like Rupnik emphasize the fact that the transition from totalitarianism to democracy cannot be considered irreversible and that the presence of extremism in Central and Eastern Europe can actually undermine the democratic political construction.
The student conference organized by the Political Science Department,
University of Bucharest, and by the *Centre d'étude de la vie politique (CEVIPOL), Université Libre de Bruxelles,* aims to encourage a multidisciplinary approach of the above mentioned issues related to the process of democratic consolidation in Central and Eastern European two decades after the first free elections that took place after the fall of communism. The organizers are particularly interested in individual or collective papers, theoretical or empirical, based on original researches that will generate an interdisciplinary dialogue regarding the following issues:
* The evolution of the partisan phenomenon in ex-communist states;
* Institutional reforms of the ex-communist countries;
* Governance and (new/old) political elites;
* (Re)emergence and development of the civil society;
* Integration of post-communist states in the European space; public policies and “europeanization” ;
* Consolidation of the rule of law and human rights protection;
* Redefinition of the political community: recognition of minorities rights, migration, diasporas;
* Economic reforms and welfare
* Political and academic reevaluation of the communist past.
The conference is addressed mainly to students currently enrolled in the final years of a Bachelor degree, as well as the ones attending a Master program, from different fields of social sciences and humanities: Political Science, Anthropology, Sociology, Economics, Law. The conference will take place at the Institute for Political Research, 8 Spiru Haret str., 010175, Bucharest 1, Romania.
In order to attend the conference, please send an abstract of 300 words max., in addition to a short CV, until the 10th of March 2010, to the following e-mail address: *fspubconference@ fspub.ro*. Please specify in the e-mail if you request the partial reimbursement of the transport expenses or of the accommodation (please note that for the moment our resources are very limited)
The selected participants have to send the final paper (20 000- 25 000
characters) by April 10th, 2010. The conference languages are English and French but the abstract, as well as the final paper, can be written in Romanian, English or French.
The conference is organized in partnership with Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie – Bureau Europe Centrale et Orientale,* *The Policy Center for Roma and Minorities*, *Bucharest and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.**
Please quote 10 Academic Resources Daily in your application to this opportunity!
