Gabriel Badescu

Babeș-Bolyai University | UBB · Department of Political Sciences

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of civic engagement in Romania, based on recent statistical and survey data. Civic engagement involves actively participating in efforts to address public concerns, improve community well-being, or influence decision-making. It includes activities such as volunteering, voting, campaigning, petitioning, or...

This study describes and analyses the attitudes and behaviour of young people living in Romania, providing insights into various youth-related matters, including their perspectives on society and politics. The analysis of this heterogeneous and dynamic group also offers a deeper understanding of Romanian society and its potential for change. The re...

A growing body of evidence suggests there is a positive relationship between social capital and economic development. Elements of social capital, such as generalized trust, provide a basis for reciprocity necessary for a market-based economic system. In this article, we evaluate components of social capital and other political culture attributes am...

Sustainable democracy in Southeast Europe is closely tied to the level of political engagement among young people aged 14–29. In this study, we examine how different media outlets influence political participation and interest among this population. We employ survey data collected from 10 Southeast European countries to explore this relationship. O...

Studiul oferă o imagine cuprinzătoare și detaliată asupra modului în care este realizată educația pentru democrație în școlile din România și propune mai multe recomandări de politici și intervenții. Accentul este pus asupra predării educației sociale, pornind de la premisa că această disciplină are potențialul de a integra și spori deprinderile și...

This article asks if the measures of human capital, ethnic diversity, and gender equality from 1930 explain current levels of human capital in Romania while also assessing the role of macro-regional differences in the manifestation of historical legacies. We focus on human capital, measured by educational attainment and by conscientiousness, a pers...

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the world’s most extensive assessment of student scholastic abilities, included in its 2015 cycle a human-agent measure of collaborative problem-solving skills (CPS). To better understand the development of collaboration proficiency in youth, we assess the effects on CPS of several individu...

Decades of techno-economic energy policymaking and research have meant evidence from the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH)—including critical reflections on what changing a society’s relation to energy (efficiency) even means—have been underutilised. In particular, (i) the SSH have too often been sidelined and/or narrowly pigeonholed by policyma...

Analizele din acest studiu sunt structurate de trei categorii de teme: (1) Reprezentări ale statului: rolul statului în asigurarea protecției sociale și rolul statului în societatea comunistă și în prezent. Capitolul 1 cuprinde evaluarea modului în care statul este perceput de către adulții din România. (2) Valori și atitudini privind impozitarea...

We explore the impact of volunteering on civic attitudes in Romania by using a double comparative perspective. Firstly, volunteering in Romania is compared across time, between 2000 and 2018, based on a series of national and international surveys, such as WVS and EVS. Secondly, volunteering in Romania in 2018 is compared to other 9 Southeast Europ...

Results from a phone survey on progressive attitudes in Romania, 2022. The questionnaire included a common part, applied to the whole sample (N=3666), and three different sections, each applied to a third of the sample. Data were collected by CCSAS Romania and financed by the Romanian branch of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

Acest studiu își propune să ofere o imagine de ansamblu al IPS, să descrie o serie de dinamici care afectează IPS, să introducă o analiză a datelor existente, să discute cum arată IPS în alte contexte internaționale, și să ofere propuneri de reforme și schimbări legislative care să promoveze potențialul IPS de a susține atât mobilitatea socială cât...

Fisierul contine datele rezultate din sondajul Barometru de Opinie Publica (BOP) din octombrie 2007. Sondajul a fost comandat de catre Fundatia Soros Romania ,culegerea datelor a fost realizata de catre The Gallup Organization Romania iar controlul in teren asupra modului de realizare a sondajului de catre AB Research Group. Chestionarul a fost pro...

Sondajul a fost realizat in noiembrie 2000 prin finantarea de catre Fundatia pentru o Societate Deschisa, pe un esantion reprezentativ la nivel national , de 1775 persoane. Culegerea datelor a fost facuta de catre Centrul de Sociologie Urbana si Regionala. Esantionul, proiectat de Dumitru Sandu - probabilist, tristadial, cu stratificare in primul s...

Din trei în trei ani, rezultatele PISA pornesc, în spațiul public, o amplă discuție despre calitatea sistemelor de învățământ din lume. În România, discuția se axează de cele mai multe ori pe procentul elevilor care nu stăpânesc noțiuni de bază la matematică și limba română și pe locul în clasamentul mondial. Institutul pentru Solidaritate Socială...

Most experts expect that the Covid-19 pandemic will accelerate global educational trends toward distance learning. Recent work found evidence that various web-based technologies afford a compelling multimodal communication that can contribute to prosocial development. However, we know from previous research on ICT approaches in education that sever...

Collaboration problem solving (CPS) skills deserve to be considered as one of the key educational outcomes. As a result, any definition of inclusive education has to recognize the importance of CPS among students with and without disabilities, with diverse socioeconomic and cultural background. This paper is based on a systematic review of the lite...

This study is based on survey data on a sample that is representative for 15-to-29-year-old residents of Romania, and is part of a broad comparative research that includes nine other countries from southeast Europe, an under-researched and overlooked region with only scarce systematic data and analyses: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cr...

Acest volum reprezintă un prim efort colectiv de a analiza dintr‐o perspectivă interdisciplinară datele PISA despre România, urmărind atât realizarea unei imagini nuanțate a stării învățământului cât și dezvoltarea unor recomandări de politici. Prin studiile care îl compun își propune să atragă atenția asupra potențialului cercetărilor comparate ca...

Although the persistence of adolescents’ political attitudes and behaviors into adulthood is a perennial concern in research on developmental psychology only a very small proportion of youth studies include non-Western societies. This study is based on survey data on a sample that is representative for 15-to-29- year-old residents of Romania, and...

Republica Moldova a fost inclusă în două ediții ale PISA: într-o extindere a ediției din 2000, și în ultima ediție, cea din 2015. Acest volum reprezintă un prim demers colectiv al cercetătorilor din această țară de a analiza datele despre elevii moldoveni de 15 ani, având ca scop principal realizarea unei diagnoze a stării învățământului și a polit...

There is a large agreement that the revolutions of 1989 were, to a large extent, the result of massive citizens’ protests, and that civil society groups played a very significant role in triggering and organizing them1. Then, during the early 2000s, a new wave of revolutions has spread to a group of more culturally and geographically diverse politi...

Citizen’s political activism is crucial for the development of a strong and stable democracy. While turnout is not comparatively lower in the new democracies, levels of unconventional political participation in post-communist countries after 1989 were generally found to be below those in the older democracies (Letki , 2004; Bernhagen & Marsh , 2006...

Acest raport prezintă viziunea promovată de Centrul pentru Studiul Democrației cu privire la reformarea principalelor instituții și legi care au ca rol reprezentarea politică a cetățenilor din România. Scopul final este încurajarea cetățenilor de a participa la viața politică prin agregarea eficientă a intereselor lor la nivelul sistemului politic...

Pornind de la datele unui sondaj realizat pe un eșantion reprezentativ pentru profesorii claselor 5-12 din România1, precum și de la o serie de interviuri de grup, studiul își propune să ofere răspunsuri următoarelor categorii de întrebări: 1. Care sunt atitudinile, valorile și orientările profesorilor în ceea ce privește sistemul politic din Român...

Policy Brief. Studiul realizează o analiză a calității sistemului de învățământ superior românesc, pornind de la misiunile fundamentale ale educației terțiare: predare, cercetare și misiunea socială, cu scopul formării de cetățeni activi și a forței de muncă profesionale. Studiul recomandă 12 direcții de schimbare a sistemului de învățământ superi...

We consider the relationship between SES equality and cooperation among high school students. We find that inequality decreases the acquisition of cooperation skills, a key ingredient to sustained democracy. Generalized trust and political equality counteract this effect independently. Further, trust and political equality moderate the influence of...

Organizată începând cu 1997, Școala de vară de metode aplicate de cercetare socială vă propune și anul acesta o serie de cursuri de metodologia cercetării, adresate atât începătorilor, cât și avansaților, susținute de o echipă de profesori și practicieni cu experiență națională și internațională în domenii care presupun culegerea și analiza datelor...

Generalized trust is a critical component of liberal democratic citizenship. We evaluate the extent to which exposure to socioeconomic inequality erodes trust among Romanian youths. Using national survey data of Romanian eighth-grade and high school students, we evaluate this effect as a product of socioeconomic diversity within the classroom, cont...

România se află constant pe ultimele poziții dintre țările UE în evaluările internaționale ale calității educației. Politicile educaționale din România acordă prea puțină atenție fundamentării prin rezultate științifice. Școala românească are o finanțare deficitară și ineficientă. Politicile educaționale din România pornesc adesea de la definiții ș...

Academic dishonesty in higher education is an increasingly visible problem throughout the world and in Romania in particular. A total of 1127 university students from six public Romanian universities were surveyed for their experiences and beliefs with 22 behaviors that might be considered academically dishonest. A five-factor solution to the frequ...

Associations provide institutionalized opportunities for social exchange and the strengthening of pro-social attitudes and social skills. Social capital — such as trust, norms, and networks — is a by-product of associational involvement. In trustful relationships transaction costs are decreased for all participants because fewer resources are requi...

In 2015 more than one million refugees were seeking protection in the EU, the majority fleeing war and violence in the Middle East and heading towards a few EU-member states like Austria, Germany and Sweden. This is a small number compared to the overall prob-lem of persons being forced to leave their homes because of war and persecution. In 2016 t...

A democracy characterized by substantial levels of social and political trust has better chances to accommodate effective institutions and citizens who are willing to pursue common objectives. Micro and macro- theories of trust posit various explanations for trusting people and for investing confidence in institutions, ranging from individuals’ dis...

Romanian scholars, and others, have decried the quality and quantity of scholarly productivity from Romania. However, Romanian scholars face challenges of both tradition and resources as they try to westernize their higher education system. We analyzed data from two sources to compare Romanian scholarly productivity to that of other countries from...

Generalized trust, the faith we place in strangers, is a fundamental attribute of democratic societies. We investigate the development of generalized trust using survey data collected from Romanian high school students within a multi-level, panel research design. We find that diversity in the classroom, defined through ethnic and socio-economic dif...

Generalized trust is associated with many positive political outcomes including enhanced social cohesion. Theory explains generalized trust as a combination of cultural and experiential factors. We consider sources of generalized trust among Romanian migrants, a dynamic population confronting a new environment. What factors within their new cultura...

Studiul continuă seria de analize periodice realizate de către World Vision România începând din 2005. Analiza se adresează în primul rând profesioniştilor care lucrează în domeniul protecţiei şi bunăstării copilului, factorilor de decizie, dar şi mediului universitar şi publicului larg, prezentând într-o manieră comparativă evoluţia principalilor...

In January 2012, in several cities of Romania, people turned out to streets to protest. The protests were linked to the wave of movements such as the Indignados or Occupy Wall Street. The students were especially visible among protesters. In this paper, we show that the profile of protests in Romania witnessed a significant shift from workers strik...

Studiul a fost realizat de o echipă de membri ai Centrului pentru Studiul Democrației, Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai, și abordează fenomenul discursului instigator la ură (DIU) din mai multe perspective: sociologică, istorică, juridică și instituțională. Lucrarea trece în revistă principalele abordări asupra DIU la nivel European și internațional, ide...

In January 2012, in several cities of Romania, people turned out to streets to protest. The protests were linked to the wave of movements such as the Indignados or Occupy Wall Street. The students were especially visible among protesters. In this paper we evaluate who are the Romanians who take an active role in political life and what motivates th...

Last week’s parliamentary elections in Romania produced the clearest electoral majority in the country since the first post-communist elections in 1990. Gabriel Badescu writes that the magnitude of the Social-Liberal Union’s victory raises a potential issue for Romanian democracy, with the coalition now holding enough seats in parliament to pass a...

Inclusive education is a highly visible yet contentious notion in contemporary education reforms because of conceptual, historical, pragmatic and methodological reasons. After being put on the policy agenda by an UNESCO report in 1994, ‘The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education’, the number of publications on this...

Countries with shallow democratic cultures can be unstable and, if subjected to intense so-cio-economic stress, might suffer significant political backsliding. Furthermore, economic crisis coupled with a high level of perceived corruption makes for a toxic mix. Romania not only has one of the lowest levels of civic and political participation in th...

Is a low level of civic engagement a problem for the development of the Romanian democracy? The review of a diverse array of perspectives and research in this book shows that civil society is not, indeed, “an infallible democratic miracle worker”. Social and political context matter, as well as attributes of organizations and volunteering. An even...

The volume analyzes topics related to political participation among Romanian teenagers, using survey data collected from more than 5800 high-school students. It includes studies by Gabriel Bădescu, Mircea Comșa, Andrei Gheorghiță, Cristina Stănuș, and Claudiu Tufiș

The chapter evaluates the links between internet use and youth political participation in Belgium, Canada, and Romania. It finds that the effects of internet use differ between protest and conventional forms of participation.

Barometrul de Opinie Publică (BOP) este un program de cercetare şi analiză a opiniei publice din România, a cărui misiune este de a contribui la consolidarea legăturilor dintre structurile puterii şi societate în ansamblul său, clarificând temele cheie care trebuie să se regăsească pe agenda ONG-urilor şi instituţiilor publice, punând la dispoziţia...

The general aim of this chapter is to examine the factors explaining involvement in voluntary associations across 13 European societies. By examining a broad range of predictors, and by comparing their impact across different types of organisations, we try to contribute to the ongoing discussion on the distinctive characteristics that set the organ...

This chapter investigates the hypothetical relationship between the cultural conditions of a transition from communism to a liberal democracy and the political history of the respective territory. The main part of the analysis is based on a comparison of political values and behavior in two large Romanian regions. Theories that hypothesize a causal...

This paper aims to explore the processes through which the left-right schema is adopted as a tool of political communication through structuring party preferences. It focuses on the cases of several former communist countries in Eastern Europe, whose public has had a shorter period of democratic experience and less exposure to ideological informati...

Trust in both people and in government are in short supply in transition countries. Corruption is generally very high and the quality of the legal systems are also not high. First, we examine some aggregate data showing that transition countries with increasing inequality also are likely to have high levels of corruption, large informal sectors, an...

Does civic engagement lead to democratic values such as trust and tolerance? This is the claim of the literature on social capital. Using surveys of the public and organizational activists the authors conducted in Romania and Moldova in 2001 with the support of the Starr Foundation, they investigate these linkages. In both countries, they find low...

Trust is a blessing. As an ideal that leads us to believe that people who are different from us are part of our moral community, trust makes us more willing to deal with people who are different from ourselves and holds us to high standards of honesty and fairness. Trust provides the foundation for a rule of law and for policies that benefit the le...

The concept of social capital has been used by political scientists to explain both the transition to democracy in Eastern Europe and the decline of social cohesion in Western societies. This edited collection presents the latest quantitative research on how post-communist countries are adapting to Western models of society. The book combines theor...

There is a link between social trust and civic engagement and it displays remarkable similarity across a large variety of contexts. The analysis presented here shows that in each of the thirteen post-communist societies considered, citizens who are more trustful of other people are more likely to be volunteer members in associations. The same resul...

Can the Internet help to re-engage the public in politics? How are political parties using the Internet as a communication tool? Has politics changed in the information age? This book provides an assessment of how political parties are adapting to the rise of new information and communication technologies and what the consequences will be. It incl...