In 1990 Ralf Dahrendorf argued that “it takes six months to create new political institutions; to write a constitution and electoral laws. It may take six years to create a half-viable economy. It will probably take 60 years to create a civil society”. To what extent can we still talk about post-communism? Has the process of transition come to an end? Between globalization and regionalism – what is the dynamics of international relations?

The aim of this conference is to explore the challenges of transition and the transformations of the international arena in the aftermath of the collapse of communism and the dissolution of USSR. On this note, we invite doctoral students, researchers and faculty staff from the field of social sciences to participate with papers on the following topics (and not only):

• theories of transition;
• processes of democratization;
• political elites;
• socio-economic policies;
• public administration;
• party systems and electoral systems;
• political elections and electoral campaigns;
• the legal system;
• political culture;
• civil society;
• political representation and mass-media;
• international relations and regionalism;
• equal opportunities and human rights;
• the role of the intellectual in post-communist societies.

A poster session is also available if you are unable to attend the conference in person. However, you are still required to send your proposal via e-mail by March, 10^th and pay the registration fee by April, 13^th. Pending evaluation of the Scientific Committee, you will then submit a poster paper, which we will print in an A2 format and display at the Faculty of Political Science during the days of the event. In addition, your final paper will also be included in the same collective volume. Nevertheless, please note that the non-attending participants are included only in the poster section of the conference program and that this will also be mentioned on their attendance certificate.

Please send your abstracts by March, 25^th 2013, written in English/French to doctoralconference@fspub.unibuc.ro. They must contain the name, statute and institutional affiliation of the author/authors, the title of the paper and an abstract of 1.500 – 2.000 characters, along with 5 key-words. The candidates whose proposals are accepted by the Scientific Committee will be notified via e-mail by March, 27^th 2013.

The participation fee is 150 RON (35 EURO). Further details about the account will be provided soon.