Institutionalization of Indoctrination - by Simona Preda & Paul Dragos Aligica (Paperback)

About the Book

Combining a historical case study with theoretical framing, this book offers an exploratory contribution to our understanding of the institutionalization of indoctrination and propaganda, and of the associated social monitoring and control practices, both as they have manifested in the past, and as they may manifest in the future.

Book Synopsis

Combining a historical case study with theoretical framing, this book offers an exploratory contribution to our understanding of the institutionalization of indoctrination and propaganda, and of the associated social monitoring and control practices, both as they have manifested in the past, and as they may manifest in the future.

Review Quotes

Studying indoctrination and propaganda under communism has seemed to be an easy task for social scientists since the basics of totalitarian rule were first explored many decades ago. However, Aligica and Preda demonstrate with great erudition and precision that without a profound empirical analysis of the institutional varieties of how communist ideology was mediated and practiced "on the groundrdquo;, one cannot go beyond the psychological and cultural platitudes of proselytization and brainwashing.
Using the example of higher education in communist Romania, they present deep insight into the unknown world of the political commissars (ideological workers) without presuming that their job to train and monitor the citizens was successful or enjoyable. Being an obedient agent of an ideocratic regime meant that they were despised by both their principals and people at large, and forced to muddle through the conversion from communist into nationalist ideology while still celebrating the mission of creating the New Man.

The work of reconstruction of indoctrination in Communist Romania by Aligica and Preda is brilliant, the writing is superbly readable, and by the end of the book the reader comes to appreciate the new research directions suggested by the authors in the study of indoctrination and its institutionalization. The scholarship is impressive and sets new standards.

About the Author

Paul Dragos Aligica is professor of Political Science at the University of Bucharest and asenior research fellow in theF. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the Mercatus Center, George Mason University.
Simona Preda received her Ph.D in History from the University of Bucharest in 2011, and MA in History of Ideas from the University of Bucharest in 2006. She is the author and co-author of five books on Romanian history in the context of modernization of Eastern Europe and on Communist education and propaganda.