Fiddling while Rome Burns: Institutional Conflict and Party Politics in Romania since 2007
Fiddling while Rome Burns: Institutional Conflict and Party Politics in Romania since 2007

Summary/Abstract: Drawing on the work of Maurice Duverger, this paper explores the dynamics of dual systems in the post-communist world by focusing on Romania. Unlike in states such as Poland and Russia, where conflicts between the president and the parliament were resolvedrelatively early in the transition period, conflict appears to have only recently emerged in Romania. This paper argues that the capacity for such conflict has existed since 1989 due to the nature of Romania’s exit from communism and its subsequent transition, which shaped and institutionalised Romanian political culture and its party system. However, actual conflict has emerged only because of recent, externally generated changes in the party system, and the relative decline in the electoral power of the Social Democratic Party. Two attempts by President Băsescu’s opponents to remove him from office, along with increasing constitutional manipulation by all actors, calls into question the consolidation of democracy in Romania. The desire of actors to gain power or remove their opponents by any means necessary, including the use of undemocratic methods, rather than by establishing a broad popular base to achieve these ends reflects the structural problems of the Romanian party system.

• Details
• Contents