Religious groups have emerged as powerful political actors in post‐communist Eastern Europe, especially in predominantly Christian Orthodox countries like Romania. The book discusses the interplay between religion and politics in six major areas of public affairs—nationalism and ethnic identity; confronting the communist past; restitution of Greek Catholic property abusively confiscated by communist authorities; elections and membership in political parties; religious instruction in public schools at pre‐university level; and sexuality, including abortion and prostitution. In each area, it discusses the negotiations between religious, political actors and civil society representatives; the dominance of the Orthodox Church relative to other religious groups; and the influence of denominations on legislation and governmental policy. While the Orthodox Church has asked for recognition as state, national church, religious minorities demanded equality, and the civil society asked for separation of church and state, Romanian post‐communist authorities have maintained a tight grip on religious affairs.
A close examination of an understudied European Union member state such as Romania reveals that, since 1989, post-Communist state and non-state actors have adopted a wide range of methods, processes and practices of working through the Communist past. Both the timing and the sequencing of these transitional justice methods prove to be significant in determining the efficacy of addressing and redressing the crimes of 1945 to 1989. In addition, there is evidence that some of these methods have directly facilitated the democratization process, while the absence of other methods has undermined the rule of law. This is the first volume to overview the complex Romanian transitional justice effort by accessing secret archives and investigating court trials of former Communist perpetrators, lustration, compensation and rehabilitation, property restitution, the truth commission, the rewriting of history books, and unofficial truth projects.
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