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One of Daniel Barbu’s main concerns in the mid-1990s was Romania’s ability to build a true Republic, meaning a dense network of solidarity ties as the very foundation of Romanian society, by turning politics into a quest for the best conditions of living together. Three decades later, his main concern is still valid. Despite noticeable progress in institutional democratization and accelerated marketization during the first two decades of democratic transition, democracy turned out to be rather unstable, with a significant democratic backsliding in recent years. What seems to be still missing is exactly an open and neutral public space, capable of bringing together competing arguments and fostering dialogue, while refraining from the use of authority. Despite the optimistic perspective of the early 1990s, power concentration, intellectual sense of superiority and discourse homogenization progressively led to the current public conformism. Moreover, this intellectual environment fueled what Barbu feared the most, namely the rise of an authoritarian state.

The totalitarian rule, as it was exemplified by the Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, is not to be seen as an historical exception. Based on the analysis of social interactions specific to modern Western societies, social conditions and ideological perspectives are the main triggers of massive social transformation that inaugurated the totalitarian system. Nihilism permeated the social body, devaluating the human dignity. Combined with mass communication through television and the internet, nihilism played a certain role in mass formation, alienation, conformism and submission to the power system. The terrifying combination of mass communication, uniformity and obeyance is nowadays the hallmark of Communist China, where a vast system of social crediting permeates the lives of billions, ruling upon the most insignificant detail. However, one should not be so naïve as to believe that such a robust system would remain confined to the Chinese territory. It could rather serve as benchmark for the rising Western surveillance capitalism.

The European culture during Middle Ages could only be taken as a complete civilization by the due emphasis on its religious faith. Therefore, the unity and the content of the Western part of the former Roman Empire is to be seen in the Cristian faith. Solely by this feature, Western Europe is to be seen as Respublica Christiana. And this is not a simple reference to the religious faith preached by the priests, but a sacred element that was infusing every aspect of life. It is not surprising that war, kingship, military expeditions, cultural rivalries and, finally, the economic domain, were all subjected to religious meanings. The retrieved economic prosperity is the new dimension that shakes the balance between the holy war of crusades, the ascesis of the religious orders and the economic development, finally heading towards the economic take-off of the ending Middle Ages.

The election of a Socialist and pro-Russian candidate in December 2016 as president of Moldova marks a new turn in Moldovan politics. This is in contrast with the pro-Western attitudes of the previous government. Political instability and changing international orientations, as emphasized by this article, are partly due to political alternative victories of parties supported by different social groups. Focusing on young people’s activism, the article underlines the differentiation between the political success made possible by street protests in April 2009 and the political failure in December 2016. The findings may add a new explanation to Moldova’s permanent instability.

Language planning and control have played a prominent role in attempts of nation building in contemporary Romania, a nation-state formed in the early 20th century by binding together provinces that were previously part of multi-national empires. As a long-lasting process,language control stretches throughout many historical periods. In communist and post-communist era, it has largely interfered with the political logic of both socialist internationalism and post-socialist democratic citizenry. More recently, under the impact of the European Union’s expansion to the East and Romania’s integration to it, language control has switched from severe limiting minority languages to a fair acceptance of reasonable compromises with the official dominance of Romanian as national official language. Although Romania acknowledges several minority languages, the article focuses on the usage of Hungarian language, the most important minority language in Romania. The aim of the article is double. On one hand, it analyses political negotiations over the status and corpus of the Hungarian language, by assessing the importance of language policies in the broader context of the processes of historical reconciliation and neighbourhood policies between Romania and Hungary. On the other Hungarian political parties in Romania during the democratic post communist transition.

The witch trials that mark the West European society during the 17th century is by no means a religious affair. Run by public secular judges, and not by the ecclesiastical tribunals, those judicial inquiries unravel the tight alliance between state and church in their common effort of consolidating their authority. Weakened by the Reformation movement, the Catholic church found in the new type of absolutist monarchy the much awaited support for the revival of the faith. By working hand in hand, the two institutions made the needed effort to put both religious faith and the political legitimacy on a rational basis. By centralizing the political power, the newly born modern bureaucracy was making an effort to destroy localism, regional autonomy, as well as fighting paganism, superstition, rural mythology and oral traditions. By helping the Church in rationalizing the faith, the modern bureaucracy was paving the way for the rationalization of the overall human existence, which will culminate with the European modern anti-religious natural science.

The final theory of the physical world, capable of harmonizing and connecting the existing basic theories, is seen as the ultimate achievement of the modern physical science. It is said to be the fulfilment of a long effort of describing the functioning of the physical universe and the coronation of the most successful intellectual endeavor undertook by the Western world. However, as put forward by illustrious physicists, such a theory would be the final blast to the previous rival theories based on non-metrical measurements. All former non-empirical, spiritualist theories, which managed to survive the triumphant march of the Western modern science, including astrology, would now be sentenced to extinction. And even philosophy would be turned as inconclusive and embarrassing for scientists, since they would no longer need philosophical suggestions on how to investigate the physical reality. In turn, expelling all the spiritual heritage from the modern world would mean heading towards the void, embracing the nonsense of an impersonal universe.

The witch trials that mark the West European society during the 17th century is by no means a religious affair. Run by public secular judges, and not by the ecclesiastical tribunals, those judicial inquiries unravel the tight alliance between state and church in their common effort of consolidating their authority. Weakened by the Reformation movement, the Catholic church found in the new type of absolutist monarchy the much awaited support for the revival of the faith. By working hand in hand, the two institutions made the needed effort to put both religious faith and the political legitimacy on a rational basis. By centralizing the political power, the newly born modern bureaucracy was making an effort to destroy localism, regional autonomy, as well as fighting paganism, superstition, rural mythology and oral traditions. By helping the Church in rationalizing the faith, the modern bureaucracy was paving the way for the rationalization of the overall human existence, which will culminate with the European modern anti-religious natural science.

The recent symbolic affirmation of Szeklerland as a new region in Europe marks the deep change in the pattern of relations between ethnic Hungarians and ethnic Romanians in Transylvania. With the expansion of ethnic Hungarian cultural minority rights at their very limits during Romania’s post communist transition, the autonomy for Szeklerland is a step forward from cultural to territorial collective rights. Facing the strong opposition of ethnic Romanian parties to the reshaping of the territorial design along ethnic lines, ethnic Hungarian elites adopted a growing symbolic mechanism of identity promotion. The mechanism of ethnic symbolism unraveled by the article ranges from road signs and signboards marking the entry into Szeklerland, the presence of Szekler flag and coat of arms, commemorations and other public gatherings to organizing an unofficial referendum for the autonomy of the region. The symbolic affirmation of the region marks its entry in the list of symbolically disputed territories and the birth of a new region in Europe.

The common ground of the monotheist religions is by no means separable from the philosophia perennis, a universal wisdom expressed by many theological and mystical traditions. The descent of the Soul in the world, common to monotheist religions and to spiritual traditions from the East, is also the origin of the European philosophical tradition of idealism. This is briefly expressed as the Soul created the world by moving from Eternity to Time, meaning that one should not seek to explain time separated from the soul. However, the split from pure metaphysics and the dive into mysticism is to be situated in the interpretation of Plato by Neoplatonist authors, imbued with the new values of the Christian religion.