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In spite of extensive research dedicated to the rise and development of fringe populist political parties in Eastern Europe, little attention has been paid to the organizational determinants of their electoral performance. This article aims to fill this void in the literature and analyzes the extent to which particular types of leadership and party organization could influence the electoral performance of three political parties from Bulgaria, Republic of Moldova, and Romania. The qualitative analysis is conducted for the period 2012–2015 and uses a combination of primary (party statutes) and secondary sources (party histories, electoral databases, and literature). The results indicate how the existence of underdeveloped party organizations has a negative influence on the electoral performance, while strong and charismatic leaders are an insufficient condition for ensuring survival in the political arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the single case study of Romanian People's Party Dan Diaconescu. Using the concepts of a personal party and a business-firm-party, the authors analyze the emergence, electoral success and decline of this party. Main attention is paid to the personality of the leader as well as to organizational features of the party. Empirical evidence from the PPDD shows that personal/business-firm parties have major difficulties in outliving periods of electoral decline, particularly in cases where the party is fully dependent on the leaders' private resources. As such, this single case analysis contributes to the general literature on new parties by gaining an in-depth understanding of the importance of the early stages of party development in predicting a party's development over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to identify the determinants of ethnic parties’ access to coalition governments in Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovakia between 1990 and 2013. We conducted a cross-national and longitudinal analysis in which we took into account all the elections in which the ethnic parties gained parliamentary representation. With 21 cases over two decades—with the party at the election being the unit of analysis—and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) as the method of analysis, this study concludes that the pivotal position is important for access to government coalitions, while organizational change and government incumbency have a limited explanatory power. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study develops and tests two arguments for how repertoires of political action are reconfigured in post-communist Romania. Using multivariate statistical analysis, it examines whether citizens' engagement in post-communist politics is linked with generic socioeconomic and attitudinal traits or, alternatively, if it is connected with selective mobilisation opportunities provided by social networks and organisations. The findings reveal that while most Romanians are politically inactive two decades after the fall of communism, those who engage in politics do so selectively and their political action repertoires are largely influenced by four mobilising agents: trade unions; political parties; social networks; and civil society organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the contemporary political environment, the added value brought by leaders to the electoral performance of the parties appears to be significant and growing. However, the impact of leader evaluations on the vote choice is likely to vary from one voter to another. This article explores the influence of voter characteristics on the magnitude of leader effects in the context of the 2012 legislative elections in Romania. Five such characteristics are considered: objective political knowledge, subjective political information, party identification, political engagement, and time of voting decision. For this purpose, the paper employs data from the 2012 Romanian Election Studies (RES) three-wave panel survey. The analyses prove a significant influence of political knowledge and party identification and negligible effects of the other three voter characteristics considered. Thus, political knowledge appears to stimulate the manifestation of leader effects. Similarly, voters holding partisan ties appear to experience higher levels of personalization. The implications of these findings are discussed extensively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I analyze the positioning of Romanian political competitor for the European elections 2014 on most relevant dimensions of political conflict relevant to all European Union member countries. I analyze the political programs of the Romanian political parties realized within the euandi project. Even though not all dimensions are considered relevant in the context of political debate in Romania, the mapping provides a detailed picture of the current positioning of the main political competitors in the context of breaking USL and the creation of a new coalition government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of the EU on party competition in post-communist Romania by testing Robert Ladrech’s model for the Europeanization of Central and East European party systems. It argues that, although it certainly holds true for a variety of post-communist cases, Ladrech’s model has a very limited explanatory power in the Romanian case after accession, for two reasons. First, the post-accession period has seen further institutionalization of the party system through the gradual disappearance of the extreme-right from within the ranks of parliamentary parties, and through increased competition between established parties on the centre-left and the centre-right of the political spectrum. Second, there has been little change in parties’ stances on European integration. Thus, Romanian formations’ consensus on the benefits of EU membership has continued to exist in the period after accession, while conflicts over the EU’s socio-economic acquis, such as those emerging in Poland and the Czech Republic, have failed to materialize. The main explanation for this situation is the fact that Romania continues to be subject to monitoring in the form of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, which has essentially extended the EU’s conditionality into the post-accession period. Given continued monitoring by the European Commission, the distinction between the impact of the EU before and after accession is therefore less clear-cut in Romania’s case than in the case of other post-communist EU member states. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The fall of Communism in 1989 has led to the re-appearance of multiparty system in Romania. For its organisation and functioning a series of decrees and laws were adopted. Multiparty system in Romanian society is both a condition and guarantee of constitutional democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Scientific Annals of the 'Al. I. Cuza' University, Iasi. Sociology & Social Work / Analele Stiintifice ale Universitatii 'Al. I. Cuza' Iasi Sociologie si Asistenta Sociala is the property of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article illustrates how the growing complexity of regulations regarding party funding in post-communist Romania is paralleled by practices employed by political parties in their attempt to gain increased access to state resources. Our document analysis indicate that political parties managed to exploit the weaknesses of the increasingly complex legislative framework. A cyclical process takes places: parties use the existing flaws in the legislation on party funding to indirectly obtain and exploit state resources for their (electoral) purposes, an improved law tackling those shortcomings is passed, but political parties are able to identify other flaws and use them to gain financial benefits. To make the case, we assess comparatively the evolution of legislative provisions and practices employed by political parties over two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is the first systematic exploration of the leadership selection process in the Romanian party system. We use process-tracing and qualitative tools, using data from party statutes and documents of the national conventions. We focus on the parliamentary political parties throughout the entire post-communist period. The analysis shows that nothing has changed at the level of centralization of decision, and inclusiveness with the members’ involvement remaining marginal in all parties. The competitiveness of the internal elections presents a more diverse and dynamic picture. We propose a novel typology for cross-case comparisons that illustrates the association between informal decentralization and increased competitiveness. Second, we advance explanations for the persistence of the “exclusiveness” status quo that take into account intraorganizational, institutional, and exogenous factors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Several poor urban areas populated by a large number of gypsies have appeared in Romania lately. The characteristics of these areas make them look like real urban ghettos. Nevertheless, their study is a sensitive subject for the academic world. The journalists' articles may be useful for researchers in order to eliminate analytical barriers. Consequently, the analysis of the Romanian urban ghettos starts with the data offered by the mass-media and focuses on the relation between the ghettos and the politics. A special part of this study concentrates on the precariousness of living in the ghettos and the attention paid to this by politicians and political parties. The ghettopolitics relation sometimes hides undesirable practices such as electoral blackmail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Romanian political parties' websites have developed especially after 2000 and have been used to disseminate information about candidates, campaigns and political agendas. Combining the quantitative content analysis with wellknown models I will quantify the degree in which the Romanian Social Democratic Party website contributes to informing, connecting, involving, and mobilizing visitors. Another objective of the analysis is to pinpoint the place that websites occupy on the trajectory web 1.0 -- web 2.0. The findings show that the political website is used more to inform and less to involve or mobilize visitors and that the SDP website is far from the web 2.0. taking account the virtual practices performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is dealing with Romanian electoral system from a different perspective analyzing those technical and legal components of an electoral law which are neglected in classical perspectives regarding electoral systems showing that the Government changes very often the electoral laws trying to ensure an institutional dominance over the other competitors. In other words not the electoral results are on spot but the way that drives these outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the partystate relationship in postcommunist Romania. It shows the connections between the existence of patronage, corruption and the states' weak administrative capacity, on one hand, and the dynamics of the political party system, as an explanatory variable, on the other hand. The instability of the political parties in Romania and their changing relations within the system make the electorates' task of anticipating and sanctioning their politics impossible. Consequently, the political parties have the possibility of extracting resources from the state without being held accountable in elections, as an effect of their dynamic, but non-robust competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of party building in the CEE democracies was intimately linked to formal and informal aspects of colonising State resources. While party regulations became more articulated, Romanian parties have taken advantage of an intricate arrangement of private and public resources for guaranteeing their financial survival. Hence, our paper aims at providing a general overview of the Romanian parties' financial (re)sources over the last decade. Within this context, party's members assumed a peculiar role, acting both as legitimacy providers and means of economic survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crisis of the political mass parties does not necessarily mean party crisis. They buy new strength from the always narrowest relationship which entertain with the state institutions. Parties go back to be of the élites closed with poor ties with the members, while constraints which join them to the financial and entrepreneurial élites are very solid. Causes of these changes can be investigated in the crisis of the Welfare State which has even subtracted space to the traditional party activities, turning the enterprises into new political subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper will examine the arguments, initiatives and specific strategies that political parties in Romania use for gaining support of the Romanian communities living abroad in view of 2012 elections. In the existing EU context, the Romanian Diaspora has a huge unexplored potential which no political party can ignore. Altough we are approximately six month ahead the legislative elections, enough time for the political parties to change or introduce new themes in their political discourse according to their positioning in front of the voters, we are going to present several working hypothesis that, in our opinion, will shape the electoral strategies of political parties in order to obtain the support of Romanian abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of Romanian partidism appears not to adhere to already utilizied models in specialized literature, be it either the classic western model or the generic post communist version, in light of its specific characteristics -- in particular, its unrelatedness to its social medium. Our theoretical solution is the entourage party, which has the advantages of capturing both the specific character of Romanian political parties, as well as their functional formula, adapted to Romanian postcommunism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the status of Romania in 2010. A chart is presented which compares the number of parliamentary seats and cabinet members of various political parties, including the Democrat-Liberal Party, the National Union for Romania's Progress, and the Democratic Union of Magyars in Romania. Changes made to the cabinet of Prime Minister Emil Boc are reviewed, including the addition of Teaodor Baconschi as Minister of Foreign Affairs, the resignation of Vasile Blaga as Minister of Administration and Interior, and his replacement by Constantin Traian Igas. The author also discusses economic policies which helped Romania fulfill obligations to the International Monetary Fund and the European Union during the global financial crisis.

This essay focuses on the interwar moment when the democratic multiparty system turned into the authoritarian monarchic regime of Carol II. The main objective is to detect the causes which led to the suppression of the freedom of expression, an essential element for any democracy. If until the end of 1937 both politicians and journalists had been able to say anything without fearing any sanction, in just a few months the situation was to change dramatically. To understand what happened I considered it necessary to emphasize the way in which the constitutional changes imposed by the king in 1938 affected both individuals and the social and political entities (groups, parties, official and independent journals). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the great challenges of Romania's EU integration is the way in which representatives of the Romanian political parties will be able to accommodate with the European style to work. It is also interesting to observe how Romanian MEPs interact with the great political families wich they integrates. We chose to analyze the ideology of the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Democratic Party because they are part of the biggest parties of the European Parliament the Party of European Socialists, Christian Democratic European People's Party. It is very important to follow and the ethics of politicians when they occupy important positions and represent the interests of a large number of European citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When and where might ethnic party outbidding occur? This article examines potential outbidding dynamics via a study of local elections in Romania, where the dominant Hungarian UDMR/RMDSz (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania) was recently challenged by a rival party, the MPP (Hungarian Citizens’ Party). A comparison of election results is made across cities and counties that differ according to demographic characteristics. Two primary findings emerge. First, Hungarian unity in the form of the RMDSz remained strong except under enclave conditions — where the ethnic minority is the local majority. Outbidding is more likely to be a luxury of enclave regions, where fragmentation will not involve a loss of power to another ethnic group, as could happen to a local minority or with ‘split’ demographics. Second, when majority-minority demographics are clear, cross-ethnic formal or informal coalitions are more likely to emerge. Cross-ethnic coalitions are rare under conditions of ‘split’ demographics, which exhibit a logic of ethnic polarization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The literature on legislative recruitment has existed largely independently of the literature on party clientelism in new democracies. The Romanian data on parliamentary representation can be used to show how the study of recruitment practices improves scholars' understanding of clientelistic exchanges between political parties and resource-rich constituencies. The findings point to considerable differences in recruitment patterns in new and established democracies, which can be traced to parties and interest groups' calculus of payoffs under different types of political regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this material is to analyze the public image of the three main candidates for the Romanian presidency. The candidates' image profiles will be quantified through several parameters, such as: political status, political behavior, achievements etc. In order to better categorize each image profile, we chose to describe the current political climate, considering that this is a pre-campaign period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study there are presented a series of aspects concerning the religious behavior of the Romanian population. By using quantitative analysis we have identified a series of religious key factors which can be used by parties and politicians to obtain votes during election campaigns. The obtained results highlight the fact that people with a lower level of education are more receptive to the political messages transmitted by religious means. Also, the influence of political actions and messages having a religious character is more powerful at the level of the population with a lower standard of living. By means of quantitative analysis we have also evaluated the impact of religious and ethnical fractionalization on the political representation in the national parliament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at politics in Romania in 2006. A chart of the number of seats controlled by various political parties following the November 28, 2004, elections to the Romanian Parliament (Chamber of Deputies) is presented, including the Greater Romania Party, the Social Democratic Party, and the Justice and Truth Alliance. A chart of the results of the presidential elections held on November 28, 2004, is presented, noting the number of votes won by candidates such as Adrian Nastase, Traian Basescu, and Corneliu Vadim Tudor. Members of the cabinet of Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu are also listed, including Minister of External Affairs Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, Minister of Public Administration and Interior Vasile Blaga, and Minister of National Defense Teodor Atanasiu.

In the past decade, many a study has tried to explain the emergence and durability of so-called ethnic political parties in pluralistic post-Communist societies. Most of these writings have ascribed minority party electoral victories to a supposedly captive ethnic base. But are ethnic parties an exception? The analysis of the trajectories of the Movement of Rights and Freedom (MRF) in Bulgaria and the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (DUHR) suggests a different conclusion. For one thing, identities are not always or systematically tapped as a political resource. The relative importance of identity politics and the changing definitions of identities advocated by these parties depend on: competition among minority political entrepreneurs, the form given to "ethnic cleavages" in the political arena and the state of relations between "generalist" parties and minority formations. For another thing, the MRF's and DUHR's electoral successes after 1989 should also be set down both to the organization of political competition around the opposition between anti- and ex-Communists (and the resulting alliances) and, also, to the ability of the MRF and DUHR to provide some minority members with prospects for unprecedented social mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on religion and elections in Romania citing the impact of religious actors and symbols on electoral campaigns. Elections and party politics in the country indicated the involvement of priests and prelates as members of parties and as electoral candidates running for local office or government office. These religious leaders also support electoral candidates in exchange for laws and legislation which favors the church.