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In developing countries and former communist states, no real attempts were made to build a popular consensus for liberal democracy, and reformist governments were expected to persuade their citizens to swallow the bitter pill of structural adjustment without much sugar-coating.2
Regarding public diplomacy the country’s physical proximity is to Russia, more strictly following traditional diplomacy rather than public diplomacy but its projected proximity is to West Europe and the United States that have a more clear approach to public diplomacy.
Having elements of public diplomacy already in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as differentiating public diplomacy actions from cultural diplomacy actions, is a sign that the model of public diplomacy that the government looks up to is that of western countries but the internal challenges pose a threat to its development considering that this is still far from a postmodern understanding of the state and public diplomacy that we can already see in some west European countries.
Both challenges are related to the European context to which Romania belongs to. After 1989 when the political regime changed and up to and after 2007 there were no clear efforts in national identity building and this situation got worse after the European Union acceptance due to higher standards and expectations imposed by the western countries.
Having no clear image projected abroad and being identified with negative images, due to set backs in implementing democratic reforms, presented in the west European news media only accentuated after 2007 when the context changed and Romania became a European Union member.
These two challenges to public diplomacy are connected and pose serious difficulties for the practitioners that are responsible for creating a comprehensive national image that is to be presented to west European countries.
5.1 The National Identity Challenge
2 Mark Leonard, “Public Diplomacy,” The Foreign Policy Centre, 2002, accessed May 4, 2013, http://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/35.pdf
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The identity issue is related to the society, how it sees itself and how it acts. What can be said about the Romanian society is quite large in size thus raises the question of homogeneity, is highly rural and religious, inclined to emigrate, present low social capital, divided alongside the three main regions and amongst minorities. Elements which are all linked and portray a difficult case in the attempt of creating an unifying national image and further more a public diplomacy strategy.
According to the 2011 census, the population is 19 million. Orthodox adherents constitute 86 percent of the population, Roman Catholics 4 to 6 percent, and Greek Catholics less than 1 percent. According to the Greek Catholic Church and media reports, irregularities by census takers artificially increased the number of Orthodox believers to the detriment of other religious groups.
Other religious groups include Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Bahais, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Zen Buddhists, and members of the Family (God’s Children), the Unification Church, and the Society for Krishna Consciousness.
Some religious groups are concentrated in particular regions. Old Rite Russian Christians are mainly located in Moldavia and Dobrogea. Most Muslims live in the southeast around Constanta. Most Greek Catholics reside in Transylvania.
Protestants and Roman Catholics reside primarily in Transylvania. Orthodox and Greek Catholic ethnic Ukrainians live mostly in the north. Orthodox ethnic Serbs are primarily in Banat.
Members of the Armenian Church are concentrated in Moldavia and the south. Virtually all members of the Protestant Reformed, Roman Catholic, Unitarian, and Lutheran churches from Transylvania are ethnic Hungarians. Approximately half of the Jewish population is in Bucharest.
According to an 2012 April survey conducted by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy, 14 percent of respondents attend church services several times a week, 48 percent several times a month, 16 percent several times a year, and 17 percent only on important
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religious feasts. Most of the violations of religious freedom in Romania are against the Greek-Catholic community in the country.3
Religion diversity is linked to minority groups and can become a factor in disputes not only about minorities freedom of religion but also language and in more severe cases territorial claims by the minorities as asking to be recognized an autonomous region as in the case of Hungarians in Transylvania.
According to the 2002 census, minority groups include Hungarians 1,431,807 (6.6 per cent), Roma 535,140 (2.5 per cent), Ukrainians/Ruthenians 61,098 (0.3 per cent) and Germans 59,764 (0.3 per cent). Other estimates, such as the European Commission (2004), put the Roma population at between 1,800,000 and 2,500,000. The number of Germans fell considerably between 1992 (119,436) and 2002 (59,764), due to emigration to Germany.
Hungarians are officially the most numerous minority in Romania (although likely outnumbered by Roma) and are overwhelmingly settled in Transylvania. The majority of Germans also live in Transylvania. The Roma, who are believed to be the largest minority, are found throughout the territory of Romania.
Minorities are represented at national and local levels. Roma are under-represented at national and level, but recent special provisions have boosted Roma representation at local level.
Mother-tongue education for minorities is widely available at the primary and secondary school levels, especially for Hungarians. Print and broadcast media is likewise available in many minority languages, especially Hungarian and German. In regions where such other groups as Ukrainians, Armenians, Turks and Slovaks are concentrated, local broadcasts in their first languages are often available.
3 US State Department, “International Religious Freedom Report for Romania,” 2012, accessed June 20, 2013
,http://www.rogca.org/a16-US-State-Deparmant-International-Religious-Freedom-Report-for-2012-Romania.aspx
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Conditions for minorities in Romania today have been significantly improved through reforms pushed through in the run-up to the country’s accession to the EU.4
At present, one in six Romanians lives and works abroad. Since the fall of the Ceausescu dictatorship in 1989 (and following liberal reforms in the late 1990s), the country’s economy has grown steadily.
Romania is the 49th-largest economy in the world in 20125; its GDP was estimated at
$274.1bn in 2012, slightly ahead of the United Arab Emirates and Israel, though growth has slowed. Romanian artists are receiving international recognition: Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 and the writer Herta Müller won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Most of those who left in the 1990s were from parts of the country that already sent people to work as itinerant labourers in Romania. They moved to France, Italy and Spain – countries with which they share cultural and linguistic ties (Romanian is the only Romance language in the Slavic-dominated eastern Europe).
They plugged gaps in labour markets – construction, agriculture, domestic services – and continue to do so. Rural areas such as Satu Mare, Maramures and Suceava have been transformed by mass emigration.6
The low level of social capital can be explained by the existence of a certain negative effect of the communist rule on the frequency of meeting friends and confidence in institutions.
The residents of the Eastern European countries tend to meet their friends less than the Western Europeans. They also have a lower level of confidence in institutions.
4 Minority Rights Group International, “Romania Overview,” accessed June 11, 2013, http://www.minorityrights.org/?lid=3521
5 Global Resource and Information Directory, “Romania,” accessed June 8, 2013, http://www.fosigrid.org/europe/romania
6 Philip Maughan, ” Romania: the Old Country,” New Statesman, 2013, accessed June 12, 2013, http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/europe/2013/04/romania-old-country
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mistrust directed to society. However, when considering the generalized trust and the membership in associations, the communist heritage does no longer work as explanatory factor.7Looking at the situation of the eight administrative regions of Romania in 2013 in seven of them the leading company, in terms of profit, is a foreign company.
Accepting foreign investment shows in the number of foreign companies operating in Romania. But the policy created to advance the economy added to the identity challenge. The country belongs to whom if the economic power is in foreigners hands.
Trying to find the elements that would bound the society is important not only for creating an image that can be presented to foreign publics and used in the country’s public diplomacy but finding a consensus among the different areas of society is vital for having the legitimacy needed to support the story and image that is presented.