L’evolution du clivage sur le passe communiste et la democratisation

Abstract

This paper discusses why the issue regarding the relationship with the recent past is still so important in Romanian politics and how the 2004 electoral events can be regarded as a moment of the history illustrating the cleavage between "anti-communists" and "ex-communists", even though at first sight the political discourses were not characterized by the confrontation on the communist past. The second part explains how, in the Romanian case, the political use of the communist past rendered impossible the reach of a minimum consensus on the critical consideration of the recent past. Other issues discussed question in what respects this illustrates a problematic democratization process, and how this leads to difficulties in the institutionalization of democracy because it involves the core identity of the political community.