The Instrumentalization of Cultural Heritage in Ceausescu’s Romania

Abstract

This article analyzes the heritagisation policies and the instrumentalization of cultural heritage by Ceausescu's regime for political purposes. I argue that Ceausescu’s political regime was neopatrimonial, a system where rules took place within the framework of legal bureaucracy of a modern state in which formal structures and rules did exist, although in practice, the separation of the private and public sphere was not always observed. This system was characterized by insecurity about the behavior and role of state institutions, but primarily the actions of the supreme leader that were erratic and unpredictable. In this regime, the rural cultural heritage was used for political-ideological purposes, in close connection with the cult of the personality of the supreme leader. In this context, the heritigisation of folk creations such as folk plays did not mean the preservation of these rural cultural forms under threat in a society undergoing major economic and social transformations that imperiled traditional community life. Instead, it was a form of symbolic political manipulation used to acquire political legitimacy. Received: 17 January 2024 / Accepted: 29 May 2024 / Published: 02 July 2024