Romanian Economic Reforms

Abstract

This chapter focuses on economic reforms in Romania. The most appropriate comparisons for the Romanian economic system can be found with the more centralized economic systems of the USSR, Bulgaria, and the German democratic Republic (GDR) of the mid 1970s, particularly with respect to the development of industrial centrals, which have parallels with industrial associations in the USSR, the VVB in the GDR, the DSO in Bulgaria, and the WOGs in Poland. The principle of workers' control is primarily directed at appealing over the heads of enterprise managers to technical and scientific personnel and party activists to draw up taut plans involving higher output targets with available planned materials, rewarded by monetary bonuses, and can be compared with Soviet Vstrechnii planning. The major encouragement to draw up taut plans at the level of the enterprise is an appeal to party activists and technical personnel on workers' committees. The increasing stress on large production units that reflects in the size of industrial centrals and enterprises, the concentration of production, elimination of competition, and the role of the enterprise as the budgetary mechanism for maintaining a high level of savings indicate that Romania is moving toward a system in which production units can play a central role in both planning and social life.