Quels modèles partisans pour l’Europe Centrale et Orientale? Étude des structures organisationnelles des partis politiques roumains
What Party Models for Central and Eastern Europe? A Study of Organizational Structures of Romanian Political Parties

Summary/Abstract: Political parties are core state institutions of modern democracies. They are key structure of representation and they can therefore be seen as a focal point for numerous crucial questions about what they are, how they organize, what functions they assume, etc. In this framework, the author aims at an understanding of the Romanian parties’ landscape in terms of patterns of organisation. In Central and Eastern Europe, parties are often stigmatised as corrupted, inefficient, unrepresentative bodies. The various studies on this argument lay emphasis on their considerable weakness in terms of structure, behaviour, functions and so on. Without neglecting these obvious criticisms, this article offers a different perspective. The various specificities in terms of organisation can be seen both as signs of inexperience or degeneration but also in terms of adaptation. Romanian parties are not carbon copies of theoretical frameworks; they are a blend of ideal images and local incentives. In line with other regional studies on this topic, this article asserts the lack of relevance of the overemphasized cartel parties’ model in Romania. A patchwork model is therefore more appropriate, as Romanian parliamentary parties tend to promote a hybrid organization by emphasizing a concern for mass structuring correlated with highly elitist management.

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