Intellectuals and Post-Communist Politics in Romania

Abstract

This article starts from the assumption that public intellectuals have the potential of being valuable actors of democratization through their propensity of creating debate by cultivating the alternative and relentlessly challenging thinking patterns in the societies in which they live. By examining the public discourses practiced during the first decade of post-communist politics, this article considers whether the Romanian public intellectuals have fulfilled this function. This article identifies both deconstructive, anti-discourses aimed at dismantling specific narratives (i.e., communism, ethnic nationalist rhetoric, clan politics) and constructive discourses centered on building new narratives (i.e., European, civil society, democratic). The article argues that the performance of public intellectuals should not be judged on their electoral success, but on their ability to fuel debate and deal with those issues considered to be politically uncomfortable by conventional political actors and by the society at large.