ABSTRACT

GREEN DEAL AND THE TRANSFORMATIVE CAPACITY OF THE STATE IN ROMANIA. A MACROSOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

The text tackles the Green Deal policy, as the new civilizational standard of the European Union, and seeks to answer two questions. First, the text sets out to investigate if the Green Deal policy will turn into a normative discourse that may ramp up the European Union’s strategic influence, both regionally and internationally. Second, the text addresses the transformative capacity of the state in Romania. Depending on this capacity, the article argues that the Green Deal policy may spawn an inclusive development model in Romania. The article delves into the abovementioned topics by employing a macrosociological perspective, which brings under scrutiny the issue of state capacity in Romania. Initially, state capacity has been tied to economic growth and then to good governance, and even with the development of civil society, given that a legitimate state, endowed with administrative competence, may play an important role in the production of social trust. Indirectly, the article draws on world system theories that argue that, depending on a given state’s administrative capacity, the international actors’ pressures may be translated into public policies that create inclusive development, the one that engenders benefits for most citizens. In addition to these theories, the article addresses the political capacity of the state, and also the development vision of the elite.

Keywords: Green Deal, transformative capacity, macrosociology, inclusive development, Romania.

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