Identity Politics under National Communist Rule: the Rhetoric Manifestations of Nicolae Ceauşescu's "Nationality Policy" in 1970s Romania

Abstract

This article aims to identify and analyze the variations of Nicolae Ceauşescu’s rhetoric concerning the ”co-inhabiting nationalities” during the 1970s as a legitimacy-seeking gambit. The article argues that two of the key explanatory variables that influenced the escalation of anti-minority discourse and measures were the Romanian-Hungarian interstate relations and the resistance of the ethnic Hungarians in Romania to aggressively assimilationist strategies. This analysis is inscribed into a wider field of research (Critical Discourse Analysis), and is aimed at ascertaining political discourse as a key generator and projector of political-societal developments and determinant of identity formation.