Structuring Political Science in Romania: A Brief Overview

More than three decades of teaching, adapting and developing political science in Romania represent a tremendous effort of building a ship at sea, especially when one takes into account the origin of the new political science teaching and disseminating at society level. Before 1989, political science was not only extremely ideological, but very instrumental in its purpose of educating single-party personnel with future administrative tasks. Therefore, the current article focuses on the structural constraints when it comes to assess how political science developed in post-communist Romania. In this vein, the article takes into account the transition between the two ideological systems and the renewed momentum that impetuously pushed forward this scholarly discipline in terms of authors’/teachers’ scholarly background, main research areas, core theories endorsed, methodology, original bibliography and Romanian translations, international cooperation, and language of communication. The exploratory attempt does not intend to thoroughly classify all the products of the discipline, but to set up milestones that have defined the institutionalization and professionalization of political science in Romania. However superficial, the brief overview is suitable enough for assessing how political science was structured during the last thirty years.