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Politics and Religion Poll
PUBLIC OPINION SURVEY 
financed by
Marsh Copsey + Associates, Inc. – Washington DC, USA
6 – 14 April 2009
BIROUL DE CERCETĂRI SOCIALEStr. Dreptăţii Nr. 10, Sector 6, Bucureşti - Tel./Fax: 021 430 0725 - Mobil: 0723 364 739E-mail: bcs@sondaje.info, office@cercetari-sociale.ro - www. sondaje.info
 
Romanians embrace astrology;significant changes in global religiousoutlook
Survey conducted by the Bureau of Social Research shows changes in Romanian religious attitudes mirror those inWestern nations
Bucharest, Romania
– The recent Bureau of Social Research survey shows that one in fiveRomanian adults believes in reincarnation and almost one in two has consulted his or her horoscopelast week. The findings, released immediately after Easter, are in stark contrast to both local andglobal media perceptions, which tend to see Eastern Europe in general and Romania, in particular, asa land of traditional religiosity. The results, aligned with general European and American trends, alsohighlight a less known facet of religious globalization.With a population at an economic and educational level quite different from that of manyWestern nations, 27.6% of Romanians share New Age beliefs in reincarnation, a rate higher than thatfound in the US where according to a 2005 Harris Poll 20% of population believes in reincarnation.According to the Harris Poll, 28% of Americans believe in witches, a proportion almost equal to that of 29.35% of Romanians who believe in witchcraft. 68.2% of Romanians believe in miracles, whichclosely matches the proportion of American population, 73%, who believes in supernatural acts.Romanians have embraced the Aquarian habit of looking at the stars to get guidance in theirlives at a much higher proportion than the American population, whose New Age fads are almost 40years old. 47.4% of Romanians believe in astrology, compared with 25% of Americans. The religious findings reported in Romania, an Oregon size nation of 20 million located in SouthEastern Europe, are just the last batch of indicators that suggest an increasing Eastern Europeanspiritual convergence with the West. The data are in tune with several other studies conducted in thelast decades. Some of them, such as those reported by Andrew Greeley in 2004 in “Religion inEurope”, suggest that belief in astrology is quite high throughout Europe, where 41% of the French,37% of Germans, 40% of Hungarians or 54% of Russians believe in the power of the stars topreordain human fate.Romania, like most other post-Soviet countries, has been through several phases of religioustransformation over the last half century. It has been less obvious until recently how much thistransformation could parallel, although for different reasons and in different manners, that of theWestern world. During the 1950s forcible secularization by curtailing religious freedom in the EasternBlock paralleled major changes in traditional religious faith in the West. From the late 1960s to early90s, Eastern Europe has gone through a spiritual renewal process, yet this has not necessarily meanta return to the old Orthodox ways. As the findings suggested above, the trend is to embrace morecontemporary faiths, in tune with global trends.
 
Other findings and contact
Other notable poll findings:
Only 51.9% of Romanians intend to vote in the June 2009 elections for the European Parliament.Of these, a majority of 55.7% will vote for the ruling LDP-SDP coalition. The center-right liberals (NLP)are expected to get 20.4% of the votes. Almost 10% of Romanians that will vote expressed theirpreference for the nationalist Greater Romania and New Generation Parties, which have recoveredsome of the ground lost over the last four years.Romanian president Traian Băsescu, who is due for reelection later this year, remains the favoritecandidate in the presidential race. Yet, his main contender, the center-right candidate Crin Antonescu,has a very strong position. A less known politician, Antoenscu is favored by 48.7% of the likely voters,compared to a slightly larger proportion, 51.3% of Romanians, who would vote for the incumbentBăsescu, who has lost some of his popular appeal since he gave his blessing to a ruling coalitionbetween his party and their former enemies, the social democracts. A majority of Romanians 62%,distrust Traian Băsescu today, a dramatic change since February 2009, when only 48.1% of Romanians said that they distrusted the president.51.7% of Romanians are disenchanted with the economic predicament of the nation, which hasbeen declining with the rest of the world since October 2008. Yet, they do not blame the currentsituation only on the global economic slowdown, as expected, but also and mostly on their leaders.42.9% of Romanians blame the economic crisis on the decisions made by their government,compared to 40.8 who find fault with the global economic environment. In this context, a slightlyhigher proportion of 39% believes that the recent IMF loan would help Romania, compared to the36.6% who find the loan useless or damaging.
About the survey:
 The study was conducted by Dr. Bruno Ştefan (Director of the Bureau of Social Research and Professor at Bucharest PolytechnicUniversity) in collaboration with Dr. Sorin Adam Matei (Purdue University). The study was sponsored by Marsh Copsey and Associates,Washington, DC. For details contact Dr. Sorin Adam Matei, smatei@purdue.edu, 317-416-5807 http://matei.org/ithink
Sources cited:
  The Religious and Other Beliefs of Americans 2005,http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=618Greeley, A. 2004. Religion in Europe at the end of the second millennium, Transactionshttp://books.google.com/books?id=LDxDJui7BL0C&printsec=frontcover#PPP1,M1
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