Consolidarea partidelor politice și reforma instituțională a autorității publice în Europa Centrală și Orientală: pluripartism și pluralism politic în postcomunismul românesc

Abstract

The article explores the way political participation, representation and governance are conceptualized and rationalized by the Romanian legislation on parties. The plurality of parties was initially set up as a way to discipline and organize the political pluralism manifest in society in order to contain it within the boundaries imposed by the Constitution. This disciplinary vocation of parties was confirmed and reinforced by the laws enacted in 1996 and 2003 that embedded parties into a functional vision of democracy where they were explicitly endowed with the public mission of ensuring the political integration of Romanian citizens. The detailed rationalization of parties’ mission to organize citizens’ political participation and to contain the expression of their political will contrasted sharply with both the ambiguity of their governmental role within the ”eclectic” institutional design of the Constitution, and with their organizational friability.