Development Discourse in Romania: From Socialism to EU Membership

Abstract

In recent years, 12 European countries (re)entered the donors' community. They are said to be ‘new’, inexpert donors that need to learn from the ‘old’ ones. Taking Romania's case, this paper argues that the equation, ‘new EU member state = new donor’, is debatable. Before 1989, Romania had an extensive web of relations with the developing countries and was an active presence in the field of international development. The paper discusses Romania's pre-1989 programme for international development, some important elements of its development discourse and its current strategy for development cooperation. It shows that while encouraged to ‘build its capacity’ as a ‘new’ donor, Romania has also been encouraged to – and was willing to – ‘unlearn’ its previous practices. Romania and its fellow ‘new’ member states go through a process that sees their cooption to the dominant theory and practice of development cooperation. The above- mentioned equation seems to be only one of the many tools employed by the promoters of this cooption process. The paper is informed by discourse analysis methods and post-development thinking.

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