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2024 | Book

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Post-Communist Progress and Stagnation at 35

The Case of Romania

Editors: Lavinia Stan, Diane Vancea

Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

This book examines Romania’s efforts to consolidate liberal democracy and market economy, as desired by the generation who effected change in 1989 and required by the European Union. The ousting of Nicolae Ceausescu, leader of an autarchic and nationalistic dictatorship, underscored the limitations of politically engineering change when rule of law is weak, institutions are misused, and intolerance and cheating are prevalent. Despite initial hopes, Romania’s transition combined progress and stagnation, missed opportunities, detours, unintended consequences, and success. The contributions illustrate the tenuous relationship between continuity and change in a country that is yet to catch up with its neighbors.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction
Abstract
The starting point from which to assess Romania’s evolution since 1990 in this collection of studies is the nature of the collapse of Communism there. Whereas Ceauşescu succeeded in uniting Romanians in opposition to him, his fall threw them into confusion. The legacy of totalitarian rule in Romania was therefore markedly different from that elsewhere. The impetus for reform in Romania and the adoption of democratic institutions came from outside rather than from within. The International Monetary Fund, the Council of Europe, and the European Union have been the major catalysts of reform, and the need to satisfy the requirements of these institutions in order to achieve integration into the so-called “Euro-Atlantic structures” spurred and guided the reform process in Romania. This volume reflects the significant progress made in Romania’s development over the last thirty-five years but at the same time identifies and addresses the flaws that continue to plague the public domain.
Dennis Deletant

Institutions and Elites

Frontmatter
Chapter 2. Institutional Choices and Weaknesses After 1989
Abstract
The December 1989 revolution allowed for a return to democracy, almost five decades after Romania turned dictatorial. Romanians rejected communist censorship, repression, and surveillance, but were unsure what the new democracy should consist of, given the diversity of Western models. After 1989, the public debate over the return to monarchy revolved exclusively around the person of King Michael and ignored the democratic virtues and shortcomings of contemporary constitutional monarchies. To obviate the return to monarchy, the National Salvation Front and Ion Iliescu recognized Romania as a republic. Romania chose a French-inspired semi-presidential system that allows the president to dominate the government structure as a powerful head of state, while also involving voters in the election of both the president and the Parliament in separate elections. The president must share decision-making responsibility with the prime minister and the cabinet.
Florin Anghel
Chapter 3. An Overview of Cabinet Demographics
Abstract
Since the fall of communism in 1989, Romania has consistently ranked last in the European Union (EU) in terms of its economic development, political stability, and educational performance. Scholars have blamed this underperformance on elites’ individual characteristics or historically/culturally inherited habits, but this research focuses on the traits that made Romania's political elites inappropriate for political leadership and delayed the country’s convergence with EU standards. By exploring biographical and other publicly available documents, we describe the cabinets of 1989–2023 in terms of the ministers’ age, gender, birth places, and academic background. As we show, their poor knowledge of the country’s problems, mediocre leadership competencies, and disregard of ethical standards impede effective governance. Although some ministers had excellent leadership skills, most had none, suggesting that the post-communist political elite has prioritized cronyism over meritocracy.
Alexandra Horobet, Claudia Ogrean, Dana Alexandru, Robert Oprescu
Chapter 4. The Eroding Force of Informal Rules: Romania Between Democracy and Europeanization
Abstract
Democratization was meant to deliver a better quality of governance in the context of increased accountability mechanisms, but the experience of the past thirty-five years has provided a mixed track record of institutional consolidation. European integration has led to an ample record of reforms and civil society groups have championed numerous watchdog initiatives, but poor institutional capacity remains a reality in Romania. The mainstream argument is that institutional consolidation has been undermined by distortive phenomena such as corruption, patronage, and clientelism. The consolidation led by the European Union (EU) has impacted the quality of institutional processes only when coupled with financial conditionalities, that is, only when institutional processes were directly involved in EU-funded programs. In contrast, the Romanian public administration did not undertake consolidation of its own. The duality between the local practices and codes of conduct and the formal compliance with international requirements translated into a superficial institutional consolidation. In the absence of a systematic domestic effort of institutional reform, the gains accumulated over the past decade will continue to stand on a foundation of sand.
Clara Volintiru, Edit Zgut-Przybylska
Chapter 5. Are We There Yet? Romania’s Semi-Peripheral Rule of Law
Abstract
Post-communist Romania has achieved several key milestones, most notably becoming a stable democracy and a European Union member. It ranks above the global average on democracy and the rule of law, with stable, if mediocre scores. This chapter contends that Romania’s rule of law can be analyzed as a type of semi-peripheral rule of law, with sufficiently established formal norms and institutions, but uneven development of deliberative rule of law practices and culture. The chapter introduces the concept of semi-peripheral rule of law in order to ground the analysis of Romania’s evolution, followed by a brief examination of positive post-communist developments. Ultimately, the rule of law in Romania remains embedded in a transitional and modernization logic, with formal rule of law reforms thwarted by the persistence of corruption and the politicization of law, and only partially matched by a commitment to rule of law values and practices.
Mihaela Şerban
Chapter 6. Protracted Transition: The Civilian Control Over the Military and Intelligence
Abstract
This chapter provides a comprehensive analysis of the structural changes that have affected civil-military relations in Romania over the past thirty-five years, with a particular focus on intelligence agencies. It explores the transition from a ‘subjective’ form of civilian control of the military and intelligence under the communist regime to a more Western-style ‘objective’ control after the regime change of 1989. The chapter identifies three distinct periods in the transition process, highlighting the obstacles encountered during each period and their impact on the evolution of civil-military relations. Despite notable achievements in effecting democratization and establishing a legal framework for civilian oversight over the military and intelligence, effective civilian control remains elusive. Recent scandals raise concerns about future civil-military relations in Romania.
Marius Ghincea, Marian Zulean

Civil Society and Its Values

Frontmatter
Chapter 7. Romanian Parties and Post-Communist Democracy
Abstract
This chapter aims to map the features that make up the Romanian party politics three decades after the collapse of the communist regime. The analysis starts by identifying the main stages in the development of Romanian party politics, from the extreme fluidity of the early 1990s to the progressive closure of the party system starting in the 2000s. On the one side, this stabilization has been equated to a predictable competition for government offices and regular inter-party relations; on the other, the Romanian low number of parliamentary political parties was increasingly criticized for hampering the possibilities for a renewed supply of parties, reinforcing corruption and collusive practices, and, implicitly, generating a limited turnover in power. On this ground, different organizations and various political entrepreneurs have voiced the need to defend traditional values in politics; the 2020 Romanian general elections brought a relevant populist radical right populist party to Parliament. Beyond this electoral success, the AUR’s arrival to national politics has given more visibility to the illiberal traits of politics and shed light on the vulnerability of the Romanian post-communist democracy.
Sorina Soare, Mattia Collini
Chapter 8. The Challenges of Political Protest and Democratic Representation
Abstract
The collapse of communism gave way to optimism regarding the potential for the development of a strong democratic political landscape, in terms of both the consolidation and stability of the party system and an active and diverse civil society. This chapter investigates these developments, with a focus on protest as a mechanism for political engagement. It argues that three and a half decades after the fall of Ceaușescu’s regime, the picture remains mixed in terms of political representation and democracy. A worrying tendency is represented by insurrectional protest—a protest that has its primary aim to topple elected governments—which undermines representative democracy. Given that civil society participation (and participation in protest) remains low and characteristic to a narrow demographic group of largely young, urban, educated people, representation gaps produced by insurrectional protest become more acute. This happens against the background of low electoral turnout, and low trust in key political institutions (political parties, parliament and government), which opens up a different representation gap. The result is a pattern of highly polarised and adversarial interactions between elected representatives and protesters (each with a narrow support base), which creates a significant crisis of representation and democracy. This crisis is further deepened by parliamentary parties that both represent their voters in the parliament and protest against the parliamentary structures they are part of.
Radu Cinpoes
Chapter 9. Political Anachronism and Elite Political Culture: The Lacunae Theory
Abstract
This chapter addresses the intersection of symbolic and political power in the case of the intellectual elites of post-communist politics in Romania. Public intellectual discourse helps shape a political imaginary, which elicits popular values, preferences, and beliefs. It is from this perspective that perceptions (and self-perceptions) of the public intellectual sphere capture an important political dimension of democratic development. Here, I sketch the discourses and assessments of the Romanian public sphere coming from several Romanian public intellectuals (Vintila Mihailescu, Lucian Boia, Sorin Adam Matei, Mona Momescu, H. R. Patapievici, Liviu Andreescu) and I articulate what I call the lacunae theory of the public sphere in Romania. My central contention is that, despite a plethora of political disagreements between segments of the intellectual elites, there is overwhelming agreement on a central analytical perception that the Romanian public sphere is lacking something critical that is likely irredeemably lost. The analysis sets the groundwork for a broader evaluation of a sense of political inadequacy that anchors social and political frustrations in Eastern Europe, and in Romania in particular.
Delia Popescu

Change and Continuity in Areas of Life

Frontmatter
Chapter 10. Riding the Waves of Democratization: The Interminable Sea Sickness of Romania’s Media
Abstract
This chapter demonstrates that while some positive changes in the Romanian media system have occurred since 2015, the lofty goals of reaching across-the-board media freedom, journalistic professionalism and embrace of social responsibility, legal and societal protections for journalists, credibility, and the state and government respect for the media remain distant aspirations. For now, the voyage that is democratization creates a seemingly interminable sea sickness for the media, their journalists, audiences, and democracy itself, even if forward movement is discernable despite the headwinds.
Peter Gross
Chapter 11. Change and Continuity in the Higher Education System
Abstract
In the 1980s, the Romanian Higher Education System (HES) was isolated from its European counterparts. Few Romanian academics could participate in scientific events, pursue degrees, or access scholarly literature from abroad, and all of them had to teach courses imbued by communist propaganda and Marxism-Leninism. Once communism collapsed, the HES faced external and internal challenges. It revamped the curriculum for diplomas and degrees in line with the European Union (EU) requirements to participate in the European education market (framed by the Bologna Process after 1999). At the same time, it responded to an increased demand for university degrees, incorporated new private universities, and offered new specializations required by the labor market. Successive governments have failed to adequately finance the HES, provide a coherent legislative framework, and foster quality or respect for ethics. This chapter traces the evolution of change and continuity in the HES, and some of its most unpalatable features: the presence of so-called “diploma factories,” plagiarism, and nepotism.
Razvan Zaharia, Rodica Milena Zaharia, Tudor Edu
Chapter 12. Health and Citizenship in Post-Socialist Romania
Abstract
Thirty-five years of post-socialist transformations have brought about an unequal and unhealthy citizenry substantially dispossessed of the social rights to a living wage and comprehensive and universal access to public healthcare. This is illustrated by adopting a political economy perspective that views citizenship and democracy as constituted not only of political dimensions, but also of social ones. We draw on T. H. Marshall’s understanding of the roles that living wages and universal access to public services play in the social reproduction of citizenry and the enactment of social rights. We show that Romania’s post-socialist neoliberal and dependent development pathway has been accompanied by a citizenship model predicated on low wages, precarious living and working conditions, reduced labor protection, rising inequalities, and insufficient support for social reproduction because of constricted social benefits and public services. Together, these factors have contributed to an inordinate disease burden weighing upon Romania’s population, which has compressed its life expectancy despite recent economic growth and rise in minimum wages.
Gerard Weber, Sabina Stan
Chapter 13. Wild Capitalism with Political Clout
Abstract
In Romania, well-connected individuals have dominated the post-communist economic reform program. Change benefited the communist nomenklatura, the managers and directors of state-owned enterprises, the Securitate secret agents, and party leaders. Gradualism, presented as more desirable than rapid “shock therapy” because of its ability to protect workers from greedy capitalists, permitted these individuals to protect their group interests, undermine competition, live off public subsidies, and rely on political connections. As a result, Romania remains one of the most corrupt European Union member states, where corruption and political connections taint the local business culture.
Lavinia Stan, Diane Vancea

Conclusion

Frontmatter
Chapter 14. Conclusion
Abstract
An often very revealing appraisal of Romanian government, politics, and ancillary topics thirty-five years into a post-totalitarian era has been provided. The scope is a comprehensive one and each chapter shows the tenuous advances as well as the daunting limits of the uneasy and fitful peace that has emerged between previously fierce contenders for power and influence. It is based very much on sharing the spoils of office rather than combining energies to tackle new and old problems.
Tom Gallagher
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Post-Communist Progress and Stagnation at 35
Editors
Lavinia Stan
Diane Vancea
Copyright Year
2024
Electronic ISBN
978-3-031-55750-7
Print ISBN
978-3-031-55749-1
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-55750-7

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