Government Of Romania Research Articles

Policy's Beneficiaries of Corporate Governance and Diversification Strategy

The present study is highly important because, when used properly, it can lead to an immediate positive impact on organizational management. Therefore it offers the chance to cumulate the interests of all stakeholders of a company, leading it upward. The study pays special attention to prospects for management/diversification/corporate governance in an attempt to provide an objective perspective on the system, highlighting those weaknesses that require intervention. Governance started in Romania, in conceptual terms and regulations, in the early 2000s. The delay is explained by the fact that the political, legal, economic and social realms were developed slowly and difficultly. Recently however, the context of corporate governance in Romania has changed. Accountability and transparency have become key factors not only for shareholders, but also for investors, lenders, suppliers and other parties involved. Good corporate governance adds value and helps reducing the cost of capital, providing effective financing capital from bidders. In this context, it is worth analyzing, based on statistical data, the degree of development of corporate governance in Romania. Indicators are tied to the board's attributes, in particular board structure, size, independence, frequency of meetings and other factors. The source is the official data published by companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB). The results will be compared with results of other studies conducted in the case of emerging countries and the European average. The relationships between public managers and owners of financial or non-financial interests must be built on the corporate governance principles.

Study on the Relationships between Institutions, Governance and Leadership and Regional Development Policy in Romania

The regional development in EU countries is strongly institutionalized and shaped by politics, strategies and financial allocations through the Structural Funds. In this context, factors such as institutional framework, regional/local leadership and quality of regional/local governance can play an important role in supporting the efforts of residents towards economic and social development and to mitigate the significant gap that separates the lagging regions to those developed.Good institutions, good governance and good leadership are considered by many authors as necessary conditions to support the development effort of a country or region. These three elements and the relationships between them fulfill the role of factors catalyzing entrepreneurial initiatives.This article aims to find an answer to several questions: “To what extent regional development is influenced by the interrelations between institutions, leadership and quality of governance and how this influence manifests itself? The low level of development of Romania's regions can be attributed to the low quality of regional governance? Can we talk about real decentralization and quality of regional governance in Romania's case? What aspects of quality of governance at regional level are important for development?.To find answers to these questions we used data and information on national and regional development in EU countries, the quality of institutions and governance, from different sources: official statistics EUROSTAT, European Commission reports, scientific studies, reports of international organizations on development indexes and governance indicators.

Slamming the door in Bucharest: Soviet Steps in imposing the Groza Government (March 1st to 6th, 1945)

The paper focuses on the evolution of Romanian political turmoil during the timeframe 1 – 6 March 1945 in the light of new information from British documents that provides a comprehensive analysis.As occupying Soviets required the dismissal of the Rădescu Government, King Michael had to accept. The Romanian King and the democratic/historical parties hoped to form a national union Government, excluding as before Antonescu’s collaborators and Legionaries, based on the percentage held by each party in the Rădescu Government. With Soviet help, Petru Groza, one of the leading members of the National Democratic Front, dominated by Communists, was nominated Prime Minister by the King. Groza offerred only a minimal participation to the historical parties, which rejected the proposal argumenting they were representing the political majority of the Romanian people. Warned by the Soviets, King Michael had to accept the installment of the Groza Government. The new Government informally represented the first Communist Government of Romania.

Participation in environmental conservation and protected area management in Romania: A review of three case studies

SUMMARYSince the collapse of Central and Eastern Europe's communist regimes in the early 1990s, the ensuing environmental, social and economic changes have permitted development of new forms of multi-level governance. However, a coherent participatory approach to environmental conservation is yet to emerge. This review examines the changing approaches in environmental conservation and protected area governance in Romania during the country's pre-communist, communist, transition and current European Union eras. Three case examples are examined in depth to assess how changing environmental governance is playing out in practice in Natura 2000 sites, in a national park, and on privately owned (unprotected) forest land. Similar to other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Romania's environmental governance practices still face substantial challenges in consolidating an inclusive and integrated approach to environmental governance and conservation. A lack of historical involvement of communities in decision making, reluctance within government to drive forward more inclusive environmental governance approaches, and a lack of non-governmental organizations focusing on environmental conservation, have resulted in slow progress towards more inclusive environmental governance. Civil society and solutions for institutionalizing participation across all levels of governance are needed to reorient environmental governance towards a more inclusive and multi-stakeholder approach that better links economic, social and environmental objectives.

Internal Public Audit in the Financial Crisis Context

The financial crisis effects have left their mark on the area of internal audit, but the attention on the responsibility that internal auditors could have in preventing the onset of such a crisis is quite low. Audit plays a vital role in the entities functioning by contributing to economic credibility. In this paper we have presented the role and objectives of internal audit, the organization and activity of internal audit in local government in Romania, the outsourced system and how it helped in preventing and/or managing the economic downturn.

Trust and Security in E-banking Adoption in Romania

Romania, like other nations, is moving forward in developing its electronic services to meet the challenges of this century. One of the electronic services which is gaining more popularity and attention is e-banking. The consideration given to the e-banking by the current traditional banking customers may be due to the changes in the banking consumers’ lifestyle, and this lifestyle has become compatible to the new way of conducting banking services online. However, literature related to e-banking shows that trust and security are among the central factors that influence banking customers’ acceptance of the service. The purpose of this paper is to review measures taken by the government of Romania and major banks in the country in tackling the issue of trust and security on e-banking. In particular, the study focuses on reviewing legal provisions instituting by related ministry on e-banking practices and strategies taken by banks to address the security concerns of the service. Based on the review, it was found that Romania has legal frameworks in place and banks have also adopted measures to address the issue. However, whether or not these measures are effective in mitigating banking consumers’ security concerns is yet uncharted and need to be investigated.

Romania: Reining in Local Government Spending

In response to the current fiscal crisis, the Government of Romania has amended the law governing local government finance. The amendments are largely aimed at restraining local government staffing and curtailing arrears. They require somewhat onerous administrative measures. This report argues that while the new approach should be given a chance to work, the Government may wish to consider less intrusive approaches over the long term.

Does the EU LEADER Instrument Support Endogenous Development and New Modes of Governance in Romania?: Experiences from Elaborating an MCDA Based Regional Development Concept

The well-known EU LEADER programme aims at using the endogenous potential of rural regions and at improving local governance. Especially since the current funding period doubts are rising about whether the programme actually delivers what it promises. Indeed, translating the LEADER approach is a challenge, not only for new EU member states. This paper looks at the case of post-socialist Romania where the programme is implemented for the first time. Our research questions are (a) in how far an endogenous approach can be practically implemented by local initiatives and (b) how the LEADER implementation contributes to the adoption of new modes of governance. We draw on a case study in which a potential Romanian Local Action Group has been externally supported in elaborating a Regional Development Concept. We observed the participatory decision-making process among local actors, which was facilitated by a Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). MCDA turned out to be instrumental for integrated planning approaches and transparent decision-making with broad public participation. Our results underline that endogenous development and new modes of governance are hampered by provisions of superior administrative bodies due to inadequate translation of the policy instrument’s intervention logic. Reviewing European and national LEADER guidelines seems important for better using the endogenous regional potential and reaching higher positive impact on local governance structures.

Europeanization and new patterns of multi‐level governance in Romania

This study considers whether EU cohesion policy and related pre‐accession instruments have contributed to the development of a more compound polity in Romania and, specifically, considers the extent to which there is a process of Europeanization characterized by emergent features of multi‐level governance. In particular, it brings forward a number of explanatory factors which account for the process of regions' creation in a centralized unitary post‐communist state such as Romania. It shows that the regional reforms and regionalization have occurred in a very functional way and mostly as a means of accessing and managing regional‐level structural funds. It concludes by illustrating the emergence of new patterns of multi‐level governance in the context of socialization and engagement with the EU's cohesion policy.

On the way to modernization: ‘good enough’ governance in Romania

‘Good enough’ governance directs attention to considerations of the minimal conditions of governance necessary to allow political and economic development to occur. This paper makes use of this definition and considers ‘good enough’ governance as being a set of minimum requirements necessary for the proper (democratic) functioning of a state. In addition, it narrows the context where ‘governance’ applies, and solely refers to the organization and functioning of the public administration system. To this end, Robert Dahl's theory of democratization will provide the appropriate framework for ‘quantifying’ ‘good enough’ governance, and will then be applied to the Romanian public administration reforms (1998–2007). The authors expect to find that during the time of reference, Romania did have the proper conditions for nurturing ‘good enough’ governance.

Election Briefing No 52: Europe and the Presidential Election in Romania, November 22-December 6 2009

Key points: • On 6 December 2009, following two rounds of elections, the incumbent Traian Basescu won a narrow victory of 50.33% over Mircea Geoana’s 49.67% and was elected President for a second five-year term. • For the first time in post-communist Romania, the votes of citizens living abroad changed the outcome of the elections. • The campaign revealed a pre-occupation for personal attacks, monologues, and divergent discourses which replaced substantial policy debates on common ground and priorities for the country. • During the campaign for the first round, the media played a crucial role through its biased reporting of events. • Exit polls broadcast during election day triggered bandwagon and intimidation effects that secured the access of the first two candidates into the second round. • The election was dominated by domestic issues, the European dimension being left aside. • The consequences of the presidential election results were visible at the level of government in Romania. The continuity of Mr Basescu as President implied the survival of a government that had failed a vote of confidence six weeks before the election.

Democratic and Market Governance in Romania: Between Domestic Politics and EU Accession

Institutional reforms to regulate the market environment and the proper functioning of democracy have been mandated by the European Union to accession countries. In spite of the uniform creation of such regulatory frameworks, governance problems persist, especially in the newest members of the EU. I analyze the institution al reform record in both market and political governance, as well as the effectiveness of these institutions, in the case of Romania, one of the laggards of reform. I argue that the EU did significantly support reform efforts, but insufficient domestic commitment to reform has resulted in ineffective institutions.
 
 Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v4i1.194

Gender Equality and Conflicting Attitudes Toward Women in Post-Communist Romania

The idea of gender equality has been and still is an exogenous concept in Romanian culture. Initially introduced and institutionalized by communist ideology after World War II along with other utopian egalitarian principles, gender equality remains to this day a somewhat alien concept in practice for the majority of the Romanian population. Nevertheless, in the early twenty-first century, with renewed economic growth and more liberal governance in Romania, the gender equality debate has intensified, and multiple advocacies now compete on the political and social arenas. The most notable actors shaping current attitudes toward women in Romania are the Orthodox Church, political parties, feminist organizations, and the media.

Stepping Up to the Edge: Delisting Pressure in a Frontier Emerging Market

Preventing minority shareholders expropriation by major shareholders and facilitating the emergence of a strong private sector were two of the main priorities recommended in the OCDE 2001 Report on corporate governance in Romania. In this study we show that the companies' delisting, strongly encouraged in the above mentioned report, involves mainly undervalued firms and comes at the expense of small shareholders. Delisting is more likely to occur when (1) the block obtained by circumventing the market is higher; (2) the companies are less scrutinized by investors and hence market prices are less informative and; (3) the scope for employing the company's resources without the need to demonstrate performance is larger. These findings are derived from the consideration of governance and market attributes of a sample of 131 companies that were delisted from the Romanian OTC market RASDAQ and a sample comparable in size of still public firms. The study reveals that the protection of minority shareholders can be dissimulated behind the recommended benchmarks for establishing fair compensations to the small shareholders involved in going to private transactions. Its main objective is to stimulate serious reflection about the need of integrating the peculiarities of corporate governance arrangements when adopting regulation from developed countries.

Disclosure and Transparency of Romanian Listed Companies

Over the past decade, Romania's political, economic and social life where subordinated to one major objective: the transition from the pre-1990 centrally planned economic system to a market economy in the context of EU enlargement. The effective conduct of business is an issue of general relevance and interest, corporate governance as we are defining it aims to address the very specific problems that result from the separation of ownership and control. We will focus on large companies as they are more frequently confronted with corporate governance problems, more exactly on joint stock companies that are forms of networks specially designed to deal with the issues of separation between ownership and control. The companies listed on the stock exchange are the most representative illustrations of the corporate governance issue. In the first part of our research, after a short presentation of OECD principles of Corporate Governance and disclosure and transparency principle, we present the legal framework of corporate governance in Romania. In the second part we point the improvements related to disclosure and transparency principle made by regulatory institutes and in the third part we analyze the evolution of disclosure: mandatory, voluntary to Stock Exchange, toward shareholders, and by internet, finalizing with conclusions about disclosure and transparency of Romanian listed companies.

Une Église dissidente ? L'Église gréco-catholique roumaine pendant la période communiste (1948-1989)

Interviews with Romanian Greek Catholics underlie this focus on their denomination during the Communist era. After 1948, Communist government in Romania integrated the Greek Catholic Church into the official Romanian Orthodox Church. However, some believers continued secretly worshiping as Greek Catholics. Unlike some Roman Catholic establishments, the Romanian Greek Catholic Church was not a place of protest against Communist power, even though individual acts of opposition existed. Between 1948 and 1989, the Greek Catholic Church lacked institutional support from within Romania or from the West. The relation between God and the faithful was direct and intense, a relationship no longer within the institutional framework of the Church itself. It became the "Church of the faithful".

Firms facing new institutions: transactional governance in Romania

How do firms respond to new institutions? This question is addressed by analyzing the determinants of firms' strategies on transactional governance, using data from a Romanian survey. Strategy variables are regressed on factors that should determine behavior according to agency and transaction-cost theories. The results suggest that strategies do not reflect the long-run efficiency considerations emphasized by theory. Behavior reflects peculiarities of transition; history, ownership, and state relations are more important in determining responses to institutions. Firms use institutions but not as predicted by theories emphasizing efficiency, suggesting that institutional reform must reflect both transitional responses and predicted long-run behavior. Journal of Comparative Economics 31 (4) (2003) 695–714.

Firms Facing New Institutions: Transactional Governance in Romania

How quickly do firms respond to new institutions? Romanian survey data permits investigation of this question, using variables summarizing firms' strategies on transactional governance. These variables are regressed on the factors that should determine efficient behavior according to standard agency and transaction-cost theories. The results suggest that transactional strategies do not currently reflect efficiency considerations. Instead, behavior reflects peculiarities of transition: history, ownership, and state-relations are more important in determining responses to new institutions. Firms use institutions but do not evidence efficient responses to them. Appropriate institutional reform deploys information on how firms adjust to institutions before the long-run.

A program of acquired immune deficiency syndrome education for nurses in Romania

After the fall of the communist government in Romania, many children were found to be human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected. The majority of these children were abandoned and currently live in orphanages. The children have been cared for on a day-to-day basis by nurses with little general nursing education and even less HIV education. The Romanian-American Pediatric AIDS Education and Clinical Research Program was established at Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine in May, 1996 to aid in the education of Romanian nurses. Syllabi developed by the U.S. nursing team were initially piloted in three pediatric HIV centers in Romania in July, 1997. Since that time, two annual nursing symposia have been held offering topics on general pediatrics and HIV-related content. The purpose of this article is to describe a program of HIV education for nurses in Romania.

A program of acquired immune deficiency syndrome education for nurses in Romania.

After the fall of the communist government in Romania, many children were found to be human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected. The majority of these children were abandoned and currently live in orphanages. The children have been cared for on a day-to-day basis by nurses with little general nursing education and even less HIV education. The Romanian-American Pediatric AIDS Education and Clinical Research Program was established at Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine in May, 1996 to aid in the education of Romanian nurses. Syllabi developed by the U.S. nursing team were initially piloted in three pediatric HIV centers in Romania in July, 1997. Since that time, two annual nursing symposia have been held offering topics on general pediatrics and HIV-related content. The purpose of this article is to describe a program of HIV education for nurses in Romania.