Thesis--School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. / "June 2003." Includes bibliographical references (p. 100-103).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--George Washington University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation examines how new European Union (EU) member states manage and implement European Cohesion Policy (CP). It assess the administrative and political factors that might explain the variation in the financial absorption of Structural Funds (SF), with a specific focus on two homogeneous cases from Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs). Whilst there is a dense literature on the potential socio-economic impact of CP in the EU, less attention has been paid to the factors affecting CP and SF governance at the national domestic level. Questions of financial absorption, delivery effectiveness and quality of the spending remain open and are puzzling for both academics and practitioners. Subsequently, one of the main aims of this thesis has been to provide an in-depth investigation of, on the one hand, the structural administrative capacity employed by states to manage this policy and, on the on the other hand, the political factors and dynamics that influence its delivery of SF in new member states. The study carries out an archaeology of the capacity of the specialised institutions involved in the different stages of the absorption process with the general aim of explaining some of the determinants of absorption performance, particularly in the countries assessed. It proposes an absorption capacity model in order to assess these claims and the original empirical evidence collected. The thesis fills in several empirical and theoretical lacunae in knowledge. Empirically, the study draws on multiple comparative case studies from Bulgaria and Romania, two problematic yet diverging cases in terms of absorption performance, during the 2007-2013 implementation period. These countries first experience in managing and implementing SF provides empirically rich insights. Theoretically, this thesis offers a more nuanced account of the governance of CP and SF in CEECs. It builds and refines the concept of administrative capacity as well as several political factors (stability, support and clientelism) in order to examine the complexity and problematic issues surrounding SF absorption. Insights on CP governance, administrative capacity-building and the impact of politicisation at the national and local level are outlined and discussed. The main argument put forward in this thesis is that the variation in absorption performance is generated by the interplay between administrative and political conditions. In other words, the way in which administrative and political factors have interacted has shaped the ability of the two countries to govern EU Cohesion Policy and influenced their performance in absorbing EU funding. This argument is developed in line with several key findings. First, administrative capacity is a necessary but not sufficient condition for countries to deliver effectively CP. Second, political conditions can facilitate or hinder the development of national administrative capacities and have often influenced the different stages of the absorption policy process. The thesis highlights the need to critically reflect on the overall dynamics between structural administrative arrangements and domestic political conditions, in order to advance our understanding of how EU policies are governed and implemented at the national level. Finally, the thesis formulates several recommendations, for the different stakeholders involved, on how to facilitate the delivery of SF in order to improve cohesion and development in Europe.

Le sujet central de la thèse concerne la Roumanie postcommuniste, dont la transition est analysée àla lumière des théories de la transition démocratique. Prise dans la vague des transitionsdémocratiques qu’ont connues les pays de l’Europe Centrale et Orientale après 1989, la Roumanieest le seul pays qui a vécu un changement violent de régime ; elle est aussi celui qui a connu latransition démocratique la plus longue et la plus sinueuse de la région. La thèse présente unetypologie générale des théories de la transition démocratique, élaborées avant et après 1989. Lespremières tentent de dégager les facteurs de transition, avec des approches centrées, soit sur lesstructures, soit sur les acteurs. Les secondes insistent sur les facteurs d'incertitude propres à toutetransition et aussi sur les choix rationnels des acteurs. La confrontation du cas roumain auxthéories de la transition constitue un test de validité des différentes approches et souligne, en toutehypothèse, les spécificités de l'itinéraire suivi par la Roumanie pour sortir du régime communiste.La thèse, qui éclaire à la fois la genèse et le cheminement complexe de la transition roumaine,souligne les limites des théories de la transition démocratique, celles d'avant 1989 comme cellesd'après 1989, dans l'explication du processus transitionnel roumain, démontrant par là lacomplexité du cas roumain. / The central issue of this thesis concern post communist Romania and deals with the Romaniandemocratic transition regard to democratic transition theories. Part of the democratic transitionwave that experimented counties of Central and Eastern Europe, Romania is the only country toexperiment a violent regime change and a democratic transition known to be the longest and themost twisting. The thesis presents a general typology of democratic transition theories existingbefore and after 1989. The first theories attempt to identify the transition’s factors with centredapproaches either on structures or on actors. The latter emphasises the uncertainty inherent to anytransition, as well as on the actor’s rational choice. The confrontation of the Romanian case to thetransition theories is a test of the validity of different approaches and underlines the specific of theroute that Romania followed to escape communism. The thesis, which stresses both the genesisand the complex process of Romania’s transition, highlights the limitations of democratictransition theories, those before 1989 as well as those after 1989 in explaining the Romaniantransition process, thus demonstrating the complexity of the Romanian case.

With the shift nowadays towards an experience economy, the increased attention placed on memorable experiences and how to stage them can be viewed as a major trend which can act as a source of information regarding the stories that people share about themselves and their self-perceptions, as well as helping businesses make a step towards their guests. In this vein, rural tourism is highly consumed by people searching for these unique and memorable experiences, but the knowledge on tourists’ experiences in a rural setting are very limited. Therefore, this paper seeks to examine what memorable experiences tourists encounter in the rural setting, and more importantly, why were they memorable. In order to answer these questions, the researcher undertook a qualitative approach and in depth semi structured interviews were conducted with people who travelled in the Cluj Napoca County from Romania. The findings revealed an amalgam of experiences that people encounter in the rural setting, combined with various reasons why the experiences were considered memorable in the eyes of respondents. The main findings show how the optimal memorable tourism experience is usually comprised of several factors involving multiple experiential dimensions, and an important influence is represented by social interactions alongside positive emotions.

Contemporary Romanian cinema, particularly in its internationally successful instances, displays formal characteristics that have often led to its being seen in terms of the so-called Slow Cinema trend in contemporary cinema. This thesis proposes that there is something distinctive about slowness in contemporary Romanian films, similar to and yet different from Slow Cinema. Through a detailed analysis of films made by Cristi Puiu and Cristian Mungiu, two of the most representative contemporary Romanian filmmakers, Romanian slow films emerge as a less stringent form of slowness characterised by tension. This thesis first looks at some of the ways in which slowness can be developed in film - through the use of the long take and the trope of waiting along with the use of stillness and silence. Within this slowness an attitude of contemplation emerges, a characteristic that is key to Slow Cinema. Through close textual analysis of a number of films with a reputation for slowness, both classic and more recent examples, this thesis looks at how the techniques used to develop slowness in film allow for variation and how they can be used not only to create this attitude of contemplation but also to create tension. While this aspect has been less discussed with the more prevalent focus on Slow Cinema and its themes of contemplation, tension can be identified in a variety of films, both those considered part of Slow Cinema and those considered slow films. The distinctiveness of slowness in contemporary Romanian cinema is partly to do with its being rooted in Romanian culture. This study looks at Romanian cinematic and cultural inheritance, specifically at how slowness figures in this history. This thesis contributes to the existing body of research on contemporary Romanian cinema addressing its most salient characteristic, its sense of slowness, by placing it in relation to wider discussions about slowness and Slow Cinema as well as by linking its distinctiveness to wider cultural notions and practices of temporal organisation as well as the social history of the nation.

The aim of this master thesis is to collect, organize and analyze references pertaining to Romania in the journals of Czechoslovak Samizdat and Czechoslovak Exile from the 1970's and 1980's. The paper focuses mostly on the analysis of the political situation and social development in Romania, as recorded in the articles of five Samizdat and two Exile Czechoslovak periodicals. Based on these sources, four main topics were selected for the comprehensive analysis. The result is a complex representation of the viewpoint of Czechoslovak Samizdat and Czechoslovak Exile regarding occurrences in the Socialist Republic of Romania, with particular emphasis on Czechoslovak acts of solidarity towards the Romanian population.

<p>U etniĉkoj grupi Banatskih Bugara, u Srbiji,<br />Rumuniji i Bugarskoj, rodni odnosi su predmet<br />kontinuiranih transformacija. Pružajući doprinos<br />prouĉavanjima identiteta ţena iz manjinskih<br />etniĉkih grupa, kao i komparativnom prouĉavanju<br />etniciteta u zemljama koje dele sliĉne dru&scaron;tvenopolitiĉke<br />okolnosti socijalizma i postsocijalizma,<br />ovo istraživanje ima za cilj da utvrdi na koje<br />naĉine Banatske Bugarke u razliĉitim<br />dru&scaron;tvenim kontekstima, oblikuju rodni,<br />etniĉki i religijski identitet. Kako su jezik i<br />religija dva najznaĉajnija dru&scaron;tvena i politiĉka<br />domena kulturne razlike u modernom svetu, a<br />rodni identiteti ne deluju nezavisno, već u<br />sadejstvu sa drugim identitetima, intersekciju<br />rodnih identiteta sa etniĉkim i religijskim<br />posmatram sa stanovi&scaron;ta oĉuvanja identiteta<br />grupe. Analizama položaja žena u javnoj sferi<br />života posvećuje se znaĉajnija pažnja, a<br />zanemaruju se rodni odnosi u privatnoj sferi<br />života, posebno brojĉano malih etniĉkih grupa.<br />Privatna sfera života je, međutim, znaĉajna, jer<br />rodni identiteti u ovoj sferi utiĉu na<br />oblikovanje etniĉkog i religijskog ideniteta i na<br />njihovu intersekciju. Reĉ je o regionu sa<br />razliĉitim istorijskim iskustvima i tradicijama<br />multikulturalizma i koji se odlikuje ĉestim<br />promenama državnih granica. Kontekstualni<br />okvir analize, pored rodnih režima, ĉine<br />potiskivanje religije u socijalizmu, te<br />afirmacija etniĉkih i religijskih identiteta u<br />postsocijalizmu. Akcenat istraživanja je na<br />ženama, ali da bi analiza intersekcije bila<br />celovita, u ovom etnografskom istraţivanju,<br />zastupljeni su i mu&scaron;karci. Ukupno je 51 osoba<br />u osnovnom uzorku, od ĉega, 31 žena i 20<br />mu&scaron;karca. Rezultati pokazuju zadržavanje<br />patrijarhalnih rodnih odnosa u privatnoj sferi<br />života u seoskim okruženjima, uz izuzetak<br />Bugarske, u pojedinim aspektima. Intersekcije<br />identiteta se razlikuju u odnosu na<br />kontekstualne karakteristike Srbije, Rumunije i&nbsp;</p><p>Bugarske i zavise od vi&scaron;estrukih povezanosti<br />na relaciji privatna/javna sfera: od mogućnosti<br />upotrebe maternjeg jezika, karakteristika<br />etniĉki i religijski me&scaron;ovitih brakova i<br />porodica, te od rodnih razlika u religioznosti.<br />Najveći uticaj na oĉuvanje identiteta imaju<br />rodni identiteti žena, jer one socijalizaciju decu<br />i prenose etniĉki i religijski identitet u sledećoj<br />generaciji. Po&scaron;to su žene religioznije od<br />mu&scaron;karaca u sve tri države, veći stepen<br />religioznosti je u pozitivnoj korelaciji sa<br />oĉuvanjem i etniĉkog i religijskog identiteta, u<br />kontekstu etnifikovane crkve. Uloge<br />mu&scaron;karaca u oĉuvanju identiteta, nalaze se u<br />javnoj sferi života i one su omogućene rodnom<br />podelom rada u privatnoj sferi ţivota. U<br />postsocijalizmu, u kontekstu desekularizacije i<br />afirmacije jezika i etniĉkog identiteta, mu&scaron;karci<br />su zastupljeniji u javnim ulogama, ali se beleži<br />postepena transformacija rodnih odnosa u<br />pravcu veće egalitarnosti, posebno u mlađoj<br />generaciji u uzorku, u urbanom okruženju i kod<br />osoba sa većim stepenom obrazovanja.</p> / <p>Gender relations within the ethnic group of<br />Banat Bulgarians have been a subject of<br />transformation in Serbia, Romania and<br />Bulgaria, both during the socialist as well as<br />during the post-socialist period. By<br />contributing to the study of female identity in<br />minority ethnic groups as well as to the<br />comparative study of ethnicity in countries<br />which have similar social and political<br />circumstances in light of socialism and postsocialism,<br />this thesis aims at determining the<br />manner in which the Banat Bulgarian women<br />in different political and social contexts shape<br />and define their gender, ethnic and religious<br />identity. Given the fact that the religion and<br />language are the two most significant social<br />and political domains in terms of cultural<br />differences in the modern world and that the<br />gender identities do not act independently, but<br />rather in conjunction with other identities the<br />intersection of the gender identity and the<br />ethnic and religious identity is observed from<br />the perspective of fostering and preserving the<br />identity of the group. While much focus has<br />been put on the analyses regarding the status of<br />women in the public sphere, the gender<br />relations in the private sphere in smaller ethnic<br />groups still remain under-researched. The<br />private sphere is very important since the<br />gender identities affect the shaping of the<br />ethnic and religious identity and their<br />intersection. This region has a plethora of<br />diverse historical experiences and multicultural<br />traditions and is often characterized by changes<br />in state borders. The contextual framework of<br />the analyses, in addition to gender regimes,<br />includes suppression of religion as well as the<br />affirmation of ethnic and religious identities in<br />post-socialism. Even though the focus of the<br />research was women, in order to make a<br />comprehensive analysis of the intersection, this</p><p>research also included men. The research<br />included 51 interviewees (31 women and 20<br />men). The results indicate a preservation of<br />patriarchal gender relations in the private<br />sphere in rural areas, with the exception of<br />Bulgari, in specific aspects. The identity<br />intersections differ in relation to contextual<br />differences between Serbia, Romania and<br />Bulgaria and mostly depend on multi-faceted<br />connections between the private and the public<br />sphere e.g. the use of the mother tongue,<br />characteristics of ethnically and religiously<br />mixed marriages and families as well as gender<br />differences in religiousness. The female gender<br />identity has the greatest impact on the<br />preservation of an identity i.e. the women<br />socialise their children and carry on their<br />ethnic and religious identity. Since women are<br />more religious in all three countries, the greater<br />degree of religiousness is in positive<br />correlation with the preserving of the ethnic<br />and religious identity, in the context of an<br />ethnically-specific church. Male roles<br />regarding the preservation of identity belong to<br />the public sphere. In post-socialism, in the<br />context of de-secularisation, the state enables<br />and promotes the affirmation of language and<br />ethnic identity. Men have more prominent<br />public roles, however the transformation of<br />gender relations slowly shifts towards equality<br />is noticeable, especially among the younger<br />generations in the sample, in urban areas and<br />among persons with a higher degree of<br />education.</p>

Mehrere Aspekte des im Titel angegebenen Themas wurden noch nicht auf die Waage der Musikgeschichte gelegt. Zu viele diesbezügliche Dokumente warten noch auf eine fachgemäße Bestandsaufnahme und Veröffentlichung. Es fehlen noch unentbehrliche Vorarbeiten. Dies ist die Erklärung der Umbenennung unseres Versuches, der keineswegs das letzte Wort des Verfassers in dieser Angelegenheit bleiben will. Anstatt, wie von den Veranstaltern vorgeschlagen, \"Mozart-Rezeption in Rumänien\" zu heißen, trägt er den bescheidenen Titel \"Zur Geschichte der Mozart-Rezeption in Rumänien\".

Die Oper stand schon immer im Zentrum des Interesses des rumänischen Publikums. Keine andere Musikgattung verstand es, in einem so hohen Maße das Interesse des Publikums zu gewinnen. Die Optionen gegenüber der Oper wirkten wie Magnetfelder und wurden von den zahlreichen Musikmelomanen affektiv wahrgenommen, die beliebtesten Melodien der Arien und Chöre konnte man selbst auf den Straßen wahrnehmen. Keine andere Musiksparte beanspruchte in den Tageszeitungen und Zeitschriften so viel Raum wie das Musiktheater und die rumänische Oper.