Parties, Poles, Alliances and Romanian Pluralism, 1990-2000

The genesis of the Romanian party arrangement represents a specific chapter in the evolution of post-communist party systems in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The formation of the Romanian multipartism was influenced by specific, ambivalent features of the Romanian democratisation process in the early 1990s, such as the way Ceauşescu’s regime was overthrown, the form of post-revolutionary stabilisation and reproduction of post-Ceauşescu establishment, relative continuity of the bureaucratic apparatus, the eruption of manipulated mass violence, extensive occurrence of adversarial behaviour in the strife for power and in the profiling of the principal political options, etc. There is no wonder that in evaluating the post-revolutionary political developments the phenomenon of the Romanian exceptionalism was often underscored (cf. Tismaneanu 1997) and that, in this context, some researchers pointed out the elements of ”latinoamericanisation” of the Romanian political life (cf. Gallagher 1995; Ágh 1998a). However, the ”latinoamericanisation” thesis seems somewhat exaggerated and should not be heuristically used to justify excluding the ”Romanian issue” from the mainstream of European post-communist phenomena. Rather than suppressing the ”latinoamericanisation” thesis, the objective is to look at the different aspects of this phenomenon in a relevant context. This also applies to the study of the formation of the Romanian multi-party arrangement. A brief study like this cannot cover the issue to the whole extent. It is rather an inquiry into critical moments of the Romanian party pluralism and polarity evolution, moments which are important for its typology and for comparison with other post-communist party arrangements.The genesis of the Romanian party arrangement represents a specific chapter in the evolution of post-communist party systems in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The formation of the Romanian multipartism was influenced by specific, ambivalent features of the Romanian democratisation process in the early 1990s, such as the way Ceauşescu’s regime was overthrown, the form of post-revolutionary stabilisation and reproduction of post-Ceauşescu establishment, relative continuity of the bureaucratic apparatus, the eruption of manipulated mass violence, extensive occurrence of adversarial behaviour in the strife for power and in the profiling of the principal political options, etc. There is no wonder that in evaluating the post-revolutionary political developments the phenomenon of the Romanian exceptionalism was often underscored (cf. Tismaneanu 1997) and that, in this context, some researchers pointed out the elements of ”latinoamericanisation” of the Romanian political life (cf. Gallagher 1995; Ágh 1998a). However, the ”latinoamericanisation” thesis seems somewhat exaggerated and should not be heuristically used to justify excluding the ”Romanian issue” from the mainstream of European post-communist phenomena. Rather than suppressing the ”latinoamericanisation” thesis, the objective is to look at the different aspects of this phenomenon in a relevant context. This also applies to the study of the formation of the Romanian multi-party arrangement. A brief study like this cannot cover the issue to the whole extent. It is rather an inquiry into critical moments of the Romanian party pluralism and polarity evolution, moments which are important for its typology and for comparison with other post-communist party arrangements