Nation-Building and Contested Identities: Romanian & Hungarian ...

Can Democracy Work in Southeastern Europe?imperfections are due not least to the democratic framework of thechange. The economic and political systems reached an equilibrium, butat lower level than is typical, for example, of the Western market democracies.50With regard to post-communist Romania’s political transformation, theyear 1996 was crucial. As Vladimir Tismãneanu puts it, “Romania’s democraticengagement as 1996 closed was firm.” 51 In his analysis of Romania’sdemocratic transition, Tismãneanu defines the victory of the democraticopposition in the November 1996 elections as an “electoralrevolution.” 52 Unfortunately, the electoral revolution of November 1996was not followed by an immediate acceleration of economic reforms.My argument is that in post-communist Romania economic transformationwas left behind political transformation and that a state of relativelow-level equilibrium was reached in 1999. 53Therefore, particular attention has to be given to economic transformationin order to preserve this equilibrium that would permit an accelerationof both economic and political reforms. As Fabrizio Coricelliargued, the economic performance in transition economies results “froma rather complex interaction between initial conditions (history) andchanges (policy reforms).” 54 The analysis of Romania’s “initial conditions,”that is, the legacy of the centrally-planned economy and the“changes” that took place during the first post-communist decade willprovide support for my argument that economic transformation mustkeep the pace with political transformation.In the late 1960s, in communist Romania, market-socialist reformerssuch as Alexandru Bîrlãdeanu, who believed in a sort of socialistmarket economy, lost the battle with the supporters of a centrallyplannedeconomy following the Stalinist model. 55 Consequently, theRomanian economy was conducted until the revolution of 1989 accordingto the rigid beliefs of economic Stalinism. 56 This economic policyplunged the country into a deep crisis during the 1980s. As shown by theWorld Bank report, the signs of the structural economic crisis appearedalready in the mid-1970s. 57 In 1979, the regime introduced price increasesfor gasoline, electricity, natural gas and heating fuel. Food rationingmeasures followed and, in 1981, bread rationing was introduced in orderto limit consumption. (Bread rationing was maintained over the entireperiod 1981-1989, except for Bucharest.) Similar measures of foodrationing were introduced for other basic foodstuffs, such as cooking oiland sugar. In 1982, electricity price rose by 30%, while the price of heatingfuel rose by 300%. 58 287