Nation-Building and Contested Identities - MEK

“The California of the Romanians”juridical immunity: the prefects, sub-prefects, policemen and mayorscould not be sued without prior authorization from the Council of Ministers(Art. 35). The 1880 law invested thus the bureaucracy in Dobrogeawith full control over the local population. To make things worse, themajority of these bureaucrats were recruited from outside of Dobrogeaand regarded the transfer to the remote province as a profitable butsevere administrative ostracism. 76 This situation favored corruption andabuses against the Dobrogeans, especially on the part of petty functionaries,such as tax collectors and land inspectors.The attitude of the Bucharest-dominated administration placed it inconflict with an emerging local elite, made up of great landowners, the risingurban bourgeoisie and persons engaged in liberal professions. Thisnew Dobrogean elite was mainly composed of colonists, the products ofRomanian rule. However, while benefiting from the new opportunities foreconomic development, their lack of political rights prevented thecolonists from making a decisive political impact in the province. In reaction,the Dobrogean elites developed a regional discourse of resistanceagainst centralization and administrative colonization, called Dobrogenism.Under the slogan “Dobrogea for the Dobrogeans,” Dobrogenismaimed at correcting the discrepancy between the prominent socio-economicrole of Dobrogean elites and their powerless political position. Themain target of Dobrogenism became the exceptional administrativeregime in the province, which denied Dobrogeans the rights to politicalparticipation and parliamentary representation. Gradually, this campaigngenerated a nucleus of tenacious local leaders, such as Ioan Roman,a Transylvanian jurist and publicist who settled in Dobrogea in 1898. Ina political pamphlet entitled Dobrogea ºi drepturile politice ale locuitorilorei (Dobrogea and the political rights of its inhabitants), Roman constructeda fully articulated regionalist discourse demanding a separate administrativebudget of the province, an administrative reorganization of Dobrogea,more appropriate to regional needs, and incentives for regionaleconomic development. 77 Gathered around a regionalist political agenda,numerous Dobrogean departmental delegations lobbied the King and theParliament for full political rights in 1893, 1899, 1902 and 1905. 784. “Political Rights without Liberties”: Dilemmas of Citizenshipin Northern Dobrogea, 1908-1913At the beginning of the twentieth century, the issue of the Dobrogeans’political emancipation gained momentum. In 1905, a new Conservativegovernment appointed a commission for studying the access of Dobrogeansto political rights. In spite of the positive recommendation of the141