Political Police in the Romanian Public Sphere: Controversies and Representations – a Pragma-Dialectical Approach (1): 1999-2006

Abstract

This paper discusses the conceptual representation corresponding to the term “political police” in the Romanian contemporary setting. The archives of the National Council for the Study of the Security Services Archives (CNSAS) consist of personal files made up by Ceauşescu’s regime “Securitate”, more or less seen today as secret police. These files are gradually accessed by the members of the Council and revealed to the public. The paper is concerned with an analysis from an argumentative perspective of the discourse in the Romanian public sphere aiming at clarifying the content of the expression “political police”. It is based on the use of the concept of dissociation as an argumentative technique.