Părinţi şi copii. Un eseu despre tensiunile structurale ale sistemului comunist
Parents and Children. Essay about the Structural Tensions of the Communist System

Summary/Abstract: The paper starts with an examination of the real working of the communist system. The thesis is that it was not a command system; it was a system based on approvals. The approvals of the nomenklatura positions were central to the system. The nomenklatura was not a social class; it was an institution, i.e. a system of rules. Then the paper examines the role of the proletarian quota: according to the nomenklatura institution, a percentage of the leaders (up to 80-85 per cent) had to be industrial workers. The main claim of the paper is that the nomenklatura is a self-destructive institution. The children of those who held key-jobs in the system and, in general, the children of the proletarians who had access to university education cannot have real political power because of the quota system. 1989 was their great opportunity to get rid of the quota system.

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