Romania: Regional Persistence in a Highly Nationalized Party System

  • Dragoș Dragoman
  • Bogdan Gheorghiță
Chapter
Part of the Comparative Territorial Politics book series (COMPTPOL)

Abstract

Romania has a nationalized party system whereby the effective number of parliamentary parties has gone down and the left-right dimension of political competition has become consolidated. Statewide parties manage to electorally homogenize the electorate through using a similar electoral system for regional and national elections and by holding regional elections just before national elections. However, in this chapter, we also find that regional parties are persistently present in some regions and some of them mobilize voters along an ethno-cultural dimension. These regional parties do not only have an important impact at the regional level by offering alternative policy options but they are also important at the national level as, for instance, was the case of the mayor of Sibiu who was elected president of Romania in 2014.

Keywords

Vote Share County Council Party System National Election Local Election 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Bibliography

  1. Alexandru, D. (2015). Comparative study of local authority competences in Europe. Local electoral system in Romania: A case study. Bucharest: Wolters Kluwer Romania.Google Scholar
  2. Bochsler, D., & Szocsik, E. (2013). Building inter-ethnic bridges or promoting ethno-territorial demarcation lines? Hungarian minority parties in competition. Nationalities Papers, 41, 761–779.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Brubaker, R., Feischmidt, M., Fox, J., & Grancea, L. (2006). Nationalist politics and everyday ethnicity in a Transylvanian town. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
  4. Carey, H. F. (Ed.). (2004). Romania since 1989: Politics, economics and society. Boulder: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
  5. Cercel, C. (2015). Philo-Germanism without Germans in Romania after 1989. East European Politics and Societies, 29, 811–830.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Chandra, K. (2011). What is an ethnic party? Party Politics, 17, 151–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Chiribucă, D., & Magyari, T. (2003). The impact of minority participation in Romanian Government. In M. Robotin & L. Salat (Eds.), A new balance: Democracy and minorities in post-communist Europe. Budapest: Open Society Institute.Google Scholar
  8. Dassonneville, R., & Hooghe, M. (2015, February 9). Economic indicators and electoral volatility economic effects on electoral volatility in Western Europe, 1950–2013, Comparative European Politics. Published online.Google Scholar
  9. Dragoman, D. (Ed.). (2006). Alegeri și alegători în România, 2000–2004. Contexte locale și regionale. Sibiu: Lucian Blaga University Press.Google Scholar
  10. Dragoman, D. (2011a). Regional inequalities, decentralisation and the performance of local governments in post-communist Romania. Local Government Studies, 37, 647–669.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Dragoman, D. (2011b). Splendoarea şi mizeria PRM. Din coaliția de guvernare la periferia sistemului politic românesc. In S. A. Luca (Ed.), Alegeri, alegători şi aleşi în România, 2004–2009. Sibiu: Lucian Blaga University Press.Google Scholar
  12. Dragoman, D. (2012). Linguistic pluralism and citizenship in Romania. In D. Richter, I. Richter, I. Ulasiuk, & R. Toivanen (Eds.), Language rights revisited – The challenge of global migration and communication. Berlin: Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag.Google Scholar
  13. Dragoman, D. (2013a). Post-accession backsliding: Non-ideologic populism and democratic setbacks in Romania. South-East European Journal of Political Science, 1(3), 27–46.Google Scholar
  14. Dragoman, D. (2013b). The success of the German democratic forum in Sibiu: Non-ethnic voting, political neutrality and economic performance. Transitions, 53(1–2), 97–117.Google Scholar
  15. Dragoman, D. (2014a). Atitudini ale cetăţenilor faţă de democraţie şi instituţiile politice. In S. Gherghina & S. Mișcoiu (Eds.), Democratizare și consolidare democratică în Europa Centrală și de Est. Iași: Institutul European.Google Scholar
  16. Dragoman, D. (2014b). Could speaking for the people often mean lying to the people? Populism and the problem of truth. South-East European Journal of Political Science, 2(1–2), 101–119.Google Scholar
  17. Dragoman, D. (2015). Ethnic relations in mixed communities: Why the context is important for the way Romanians interact with minorities after 1989. Südosteuropa Journal of Politics and Society, 63, 136–156.Google Scholar
  18. Dragoman, D. (2016). Mapping local democracy in Romania. In U. Sadioglu & K. Dede (Eds.), Handbook of research on comparative politics and reformation of local governments (pp. 161–181). Hershey: IGI Global Books.Google Scholar
  19. Dragoman, D., & Gheorghiță, B. (2013). European conditionality, ethnic control or electoral disarray? The 2011 controversial territorial reform attempt in Romania. POLIS, 3(1), 72–93.Google Scholar
  20. Dragoman, D., & Gheorghiță, B. (2016). Regional design, local autonomy and ethnic struggle: Romania’s syncopated regionalisation. Europe-Asia Studies, 68(2), 270–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. Fiorina, M. P. (1981). Retrospecting voting in American national elections. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
  22. Gallagher, T. (2001). Nationalism and political culture in the 1990s. In D. Light & D. Phinnemore (Eds.), Post-communist Romania: Coming to terms with transition. Basingstoke: Palgrave.Google Scholar
  23. Gallagher, T. (2005). Theft of a nation: Romania since communism. London: Hurst.Google Scholar
  24. Gherghina, S. (2013). Going for a safe vote: Electoral bribes in post-communist Romania. Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 21, 143–164.Google Scholar
  25. Gherghina, S. (2015). Party organization and electoral volatility in Central and Eastern Europe: Enhancing voter loyalty. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
  26. Gherghina, S., & Chiru, M. (2013). Taking the short route: Political parties, funding regulations, and state resources in Romania. East European Politics and Societies, 27, 108–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Hitchins, K. (1994). Romania, 1866–1947. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  28. Kettley, C. (2003). Ethnicity, language and transitional politics in Romania: The Hungarian minority in context. In F. Daftary & F. Grin (Eds.), Ethnicity and language politics in transition countries (pp. 245–263). Flensburg: European Center for Minority Issues.Google Scholar
  29. King, R. F., & Marian, C. (2012). Minority representation and reserved legislative seats in Romania. East European Politics and Societies, 26, 561–588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  30. Kristó, G. (2000). Histoire de la Hongrie médiévale. Le temps des Arpads. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. Lendvai, P. (2004). The hungarians: A thousand years of victory in defeat. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
  32. Lewis-Beck, M. S. (1988). Economics and elections: The major western democracies. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
  33. Livezeanu, I. (1995). Cultural politics in Greater Romania: Regionalism, nation building and ethnic struggle, 1918–1930. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
  34. Marian, C., & King, R. F. (2010). Plus ça change: Electoral law reform and the 2008 Romanian parliamentary elections. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 43, 7–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  35. Mihăilescu, M. (2008). The politics of minimal “consensus”. Interethnic opposition coalitions in post-communist Romania (1990–96) and Slovakia (1990–98). East European Politics and Societies, 22, 553–594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  36. Mihut, L. (1994). The emergence of political pluralism in Romania. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 27, 411–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. Mungiu-Pippidi, A. (2003). Reinventing the peasants. Local state capture in post-communist Europe. Romanian Journal of Political Science, 3, 23–38.Google Scholar
  38. Pop, L. (2002). Autonomy of local government administration in Romania. In G. Soos, G. Toka, & G. Wright (Eds.), The state of local democracy in Central Europe (pp. 285–369). Budapest: Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative.Google Scholar
  39. Pop-Eleches, G. (1998). Separated at birth or separated by birth? The communist successor parties in Romania and Hungary. East European Politics and Societies, 13, 117–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  40. Pop-Eleches, G. (2001). Romania’s politics of dejection. Journal of Democracy, 12, 156–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  41. Preda, C. (2001). Sistemul politic românesc după patru scrutinuri. Studia Politica. Romanian Political Science Review, 1, 217–246.Google Scholar
  42. Ramet, S. P. (2002). Balkan Babel. The disintegration of Yugoslavia from the death of Tito to the fall of Milošević. Boulder: East European Monographs.Google Scholar
  43. Reif, K., & Schmitt, H. (1980). Nine second-order national elections: A conceptual framework for the analysis of European election results. European Journal of Political Research, 8(1), 3–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  44. Roberts, K. M., & Wibbels, E. (1999). Party systems and electoral volatility in Latin America: A test of economic, institutional, and structural explanations. American Political Science Review, 93, 575–590.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  45. Zamfira, A. (2012). Une sociologie électorale des communautés pluriethniques. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar
  46. Zamfira, A. (2015). Methodological limitations in studying the effect of (inter)ethnicity on voting behaviour, with examples from Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovakia. Erdkunde, 69, 161–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  47. Zamfira, A., & Dragoman, D. (2009). Le vote (non)ethnique en Roumanie, 2000–2008. Les performances électorales des partis des minorités allemande et hongroise en perspective comparée. Revue d’Etudes Comparatives Est-Ouest, 40, 127–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  • Dragoș Dragoman
    • 1
  • Bogdan Gheorghiță
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Political Science“Lucian Blaga” University of SibiuSibiuRomania

Personalised recommendations