Dimitrie Gusti’s finest achievement: The Social Service Law in Romania

Abstract

The compulsory social service represented a mechanism to combat the effects of intellectual unemployment in interwar Romania. The role of the sociologist Gusti was essential: he generalized the scientific work of the students as a mechanism placed in the service of the villages. His vision was embraced by King Carol II in his way to become “king of the youth”. The social service turned into a political attempt to redirect the youth from the legionary ideology to the regime of royal dictatorship.