An Elite of Transition. The National Party from Wallachia (1838-1840)
An Elite of Transition. The National Party from Wallachia (1838-1840)

Summary/Abstract: From the years of the Russian occupation (1829-1834), the power of words and the political rhetoric started to exceed the traditional framework, becoming in time the main horizon of affirmation, reproduction and legitimation of power in the Principalities. The traditional structure of the public space, of symbolical averment of the princely power, started to erode allowing the emergence of a public political language that ‘freed’ the political act from the narrow framework of boyar bargains, mediations, conspiracies. Being at the border of tradition and modernity, the practices of the National Party had features specific to both, combining new ideas with older practices and vice-versa. Unlike previous political groups, which extracted their power legitimacy through patronage over society and by managing the social relations (controlling offices), this group differentiated itself by using a public discourse, built on rational criteria (law, liberty), which offered the group a shared identity, appropriated in a political project.

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