Papers by Gabriel Badescu
Springer series on child and family studies, 2021
Taylor & Francis eBooks, Feb 16, 2010
Taylor & Francis eBooks, Feb 16, 2010
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), 1999
Lect. univ. drd. GABRIEL BĂDESCU ASSESSING THE ROLE OF SOCIAL CAPITAL IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION RE... more Lect. univ. drd. GABRIEL BĂDESCU ASSESSING THE ROLE OF SOCIAL CAPITAL IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORM: THE CASE OF DEVELOPING HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS Some collectivities are more efficient than others in achieving common goals and one important factor that explains success is the capacity of their members to cooperate. Game theorists have studied this phenomenon under a variety of circumstances and shown that failure to cooperate for mutual benefit does not necessarily signal ignorance or irrationality. (Raub and Voss 1986) On the contrary, theory underpredicts cooperation and finds more actors who defect than empirical tests usually indicate. Recently, scholars in sociology, economics and political science have converged on the concept of social capital as a comprehensive explanation of why members of some communities cooperate and are able in that way to resolve collective problems while members of other communities choose to defect and their collective purposes are not attained. Coleman (1990), who brought the term into wider circulation argued that social capital can be defined by its function and "it is not a single entity, but a variety of different entities having two characteristics in common: They all consist of some aspect of social structure, and they facilitate certain actions of individuals who are within the structure". (Coleman 1990) Many scholars have worked on determining the effects of social capital over the community they characterize or, at a more general level, of the society. Others insisted more on assessing factors that affect social capital. In his study of 20 subnational governments in Italy, Putnam (1993) argued that the quality of governance is determined by the level of social capital in the region. He determined, also, an exceptional durability of social capital for the Italy case, implying that intentional acts to increase the stock of social capital in a community can have very low effects if any. More recent works express a different view: institutional arrangements influence the level of social capital. Tarrow (1996) and Jackman and Miller (1996a, 1996b) argue that a political institutional approach that endogenizes social capital is more effective in
Acta Politica, May 14, 2018
Generalized trust is a critical component of liberal democratic citizenship. We evaluate the exte... more 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, controlling for the social status of the students as well as socioeconomic inequality within the community where the school is located. Our analysis shows that generalized trust is higher for students in higher grades. However, despite this maturing effect, students exposed to greater levels of socioeconomic diversity have significantly lower levels of trust. The effect is particularly acute for students in the ninth grade. This finding holds when controlling for socioeconomic diversity and polarization in the community. The result reinforces the idea that generalized trust develops early in one's life and is quite stable, although a major life transformation, such as entering high school, may alter trust depending on the social context.
Higher education research and development, Mar 9, 2015
ABSTRACT Romanian scholars, and others, have decried the quality and quantity of scholarly produc... more ABSTRACT 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 analyze data from two sources to compare Romanian scholarly productivity to that of other countries from Central and Eastern Europe that have similar histories, as well as to worldwide publication rates. We found that Romanian scholarly productivity is very weak compared to other countries in psychology, sociology, environmental sciences, linguistics, geology, and medicine. However, Romanian scholarly productivity has been more comparable to other countries in agriculture and computer sciences. We also found that Romanian scholarly productivity has shown gains in engineering and economics compared to other countries over a twenty year period. We concluded this paper with recommendations for improving scholarly productivity based on approaches supported by research.
East European Politics and Societies, May 1, 2004
Social Science Research Network, 2004
Page 1. Making the Grade in Transition: Equality, Transparency, Trust, and Fairness* ... Page 3. ... more Page 1. Making the Grade in Transition: Equality, Transparency, Trust, and Fairness* ... Page 3. Uslaner and Badescu, “Making the Grade in Transition” (2) ...
Communist and Post-communist Studies, Sep 1, 2014
In January 2012, in several cities of Romania, people turned out to streets to protest. The prote... more 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 strikes for higher wages and better jobs, during communism and in the 1990ies, to social movements in which young urban educated citizens mobilize with the help of social networks for issues that are linked to the quality of democracy and life. Furthermore, the shift in protesting is associated, at the individual level, with distrust of the political system, which stimulates engaging in demonstrations. Interestingly, online activism accelerates the feeling of shared distrust of institutions, motivating youth to engage in protest participation, although the effects might be moderate and the causal arrow somewhat uncertain. The hypotheses are tested with data from a general survey on participation in 2012 and a student survey from October 2012. We find that gender, distrust in institutions and family income influence protest behavior. Time spent online has a negative effect on protest engagement and online activism is related to protest behavior.
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2004
Europe-Asia Studies, 2005
Overview: We consider the relationship between SES equality and cooperation among high school stu... more Overview: 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 inequality, reaffirming the importance of education to democratic citizenship.
There are two millions of Romanians working abroad. There they learn how long a coffee break shou... more There are two millions of Romanians working abroad. There they learn how long a coffee break should be. It is a new Romania we have built ..., to which building we have contributed." "Sint doua milioane de romani care lucreaza in strainatate. Acolo invata cit trebuie sa tina o pauza de cafea. Este o noua Romanie pe care noi am constru..., la constructia careia noi am participat." Adrian Nastase, Romanian prime-minister, (Premier cu discernamant avariat. Bursa, Vineri
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Jun 1, 2003
Last week's parliamentary elections in Romania produced the clearest electoral majority in the co... more 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 constitutional amendment. The Social-Liberal Union's co-habitation with President Traian Băsescu also poses an obstacle to delivering the effective governance needed to revive Romania's struggling economy.
Social Science Research Network, 2013
In January 2012, in several cities of Romania, people turned out to streets to protest. The prote... more 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 them. Following several studies on political participation and protest, we assert that at the individual level the protests express their distrust of the political system that translates into engaging in demonstrations. Online activism accelerates the felling of shared distrust of institutions, motivating youth to engage in protest participation although the effects might be moderate. The hypotheses are tested with data from a general survey on participation in 2012 and a student survey from October 2012. We find that gender, distrust in institutions and family income influence protest behavior. Time spent online has a negative effect on protest engagement and online activism increases protesting.
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Papers by Gabriel Badescu