CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Kiss, Ágnes |
|---|---|
| Title | Censorship between ambiguity and effectiveness: rules, trust and informal practices in Romania (1949-1989) |
| Summary | In this dissertation, I present and discuss in detail the underlying formal organizational solutions and everyday informal practices contributing to the effective implementation of ambiguous censorship norms. Notwithstanding the persistent interest in the study of state censorship, the aspect that certain levels of coordination have to occur under invariably vague regulations is surprisingly neglected. Yet, given the role played by censorship in sustaining non-democratic regimes, the Soviet-type for instance on which the present analysis is centered, how the system internally managed to deal with uncertainties concerning censorship norms, and how the main actors coped with it, is surely a pertinent question. The research was designed to address both formal and informal aspects of the censorship process. For assessing formal organizational solutions, I use mid-level theories developed in the vein of the structural contingency approach to organizational design, whereas for the study of informal practices, I draw on theoretical insights offered by the comparative political science literature and a conceptual typology of informal practices/institutions that I developed based on three typologies (Nee and Ingram 1998, Lauth 2000, Helmke and Levitsky 2006a). In terms of methods, I combine institutional analysis and historical ethnography, which involves processing data derived from official documents and subjective sources (interviews, memoirs, diaries and contemporary correspondence). The empirical analysis is based on a single case, that is, the Romanian censorship system in the state socialist period (1949–1989). Within the case, the focus on formal mechanisms is narrowed to the extreme end of the pre-publication procedure, the activity of local censors’ offices namely. With regards to informal mechanisms, the analysis is focalized on positive interpersonal relationships between the actors of the censorship system, particularly those nurtured among the controllers and controlled, and the allied informal practices. The intensive analysis of the Romanian case resulted that the effective implementation of the censorship policy was maintained by a complex set of formal organizational coordination and control mechanisms that were appropriately designed to meet critical contingencies (i.e. task uncertainty), as well as by various types of informal practices based on trust-centered interpersonal ties. The types of informal practices that furthered the formal scopes of censorship include the spread and clarification of information regarding censorship norms via peers and censors (complementary informal practices), censors sharing confidential directives (accommodating practices), as well as counseling and ensuring with controllers prior to official checking (substitutive practices). The fourth type comprises interactions that eventually undermined the effectiveness of the censorship policy, practices such as negotiations between the censors and editors-in-chief/authors, intervening through personalized networks on behalf of a publication, or taking a risk by turning a blind eye to problematic issues (competing of practices). These findings complement accounts of the functioning and effectiveness of the Soviet-type censorship system primarily focused on macro institutional and organizational configurations. Furthermore, the results shed light on practices constituting the domain of “self-ce nsorship” ;, which is also claimed by the literature to represent an important factor contributing to the effectiveness of censorship. Finally, by focusing on positive interpersonal ties and related practices, the findings considerably alter the dominant narrative centered on negative relationships between the controllers and the controlled, yet they also show that many interactions based on positive ties had the same effects as their negative counterparts: raising the performance of the censorship system. |
| Supervisor | Fumagalli, Matteo |
| Department | Political Science PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/kiss_agnes.pdf |
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