Viaţa politică locală în comunism şi actorii ei: Prim-secretarii Comitetelor judeţene ale P.C.R., 1968-1989
The Local Political Life and its Actors during Communism: the First Secretaries of the County Committees of the RCP, 1968-1989

Summary/Abstract: The accessing in the past couple of years of the archives of the Romanian Communist Party (RCP), including the personnel dossiers, oral testimonies, but also recent research can provide answers and leads new approaches on the formation and the evolution of the local political elites in Communist Romania. This article analyzes the political role established at local level of the the First Secretaries of the County Committees of the RCP, their career strategies; the symbolic mechanisms for professional accession, promotion or loss of this position; the dynamics between Centre (Bucharest) and Periphery (the provinces) and last but not least, the political destiny of these elites after 1989. Starting with 1968, the First Secretary of the County Committee of the RCP also gained the position of President of the Executive Committee of the County Popular Council, becoming apparently the absolute chief of the local administration. We are aiming to identify if there is a pattern or more in the appointment and the retention in the County First Secretary position, and especially, to discover what is the importance leverage of the local factor. On the other hand, the holders of these functions were always dependent on the Centre - Bucharest, especially on Nicolae Ceauşescu.

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