Les questions De Waele

Abstract

The paper is a transcription of the response given to the discourse of acceptance of the title of doctor honoris causa of the University of Bucharest by Jean-Michel De Waele. The laudatio lays emphasis on the intellectual mainlines of the scholarly work Professor De Waele devoted to the study of Central and Eastern European politics after the fall of communism, and in particular on the issue of the emergence of political parties. These mainlines are summarized by what might be called the "De Waele" questions, that is by the strategies the Belgian political scientist used in order to question the fabric of post-communist polities, politics and policies.