The Evolution of Romanian Electoral System in the Post-Communist Period: Illusions about Strengthening Democracy

Abstract

The events of December 1989 have led to major changes of the Romanian constitutional and political system in line with the new political, legal, economic and social realities. Establishment of political pluralism as a condition sine qua non of constitutional democracy, imposed not only organizing periodic, free and fair elections for designating members of Parliament, but also a reform of the Romanian political class. The new political order had to be based on truly democractic principles and state institutions had to be the expression of the electorate. All these exigences implied a change of the electoral system, as the old provisions were incompatible with the new political regime. Since 1990, the electoral legislation has undergone extensive changes that were aimed at building a genuine democracy in Romania. The process of society democratization was slow, gradual and, unfortunately, still uncompleted. This approach seeks to realize a radiography of the electoral reform in the post-communist period and to analyze the extent to which this reform has contributed to the stregthening of democracy.In this regard, we also consider the effects of the electoral system on political parties, on the configuration of representation and not least, on the behavior of voters. It therefore remains to be seen whether we can talk about a full-fledged democracy in Romania, or whether in the years that followed the fall of communism, we have witnessed just a simulation of the mechanisms of democracy.