In defence of local identity: cultural factors and actors' strategy during regionalization in Romania

Abstract

The recent efforts to accelerate regionalization in Romania, driven by the willingness of the central government in 2012 to cope with the European Union conditionality and to boost the economic recovery with the help of EU funding, have put forward new constraints and limitations that have been previously neglected. Whereas previous attempts to boost regionalization have been hampered by ethnic and electoral issues, this time the essential factor that slowed down the process was the interaction and conflict between local actors. When for the first time the process of decentralization was open for the access of local elected officials and local organizations of national parties, negotiations regarding social innovation in regional design and competing geographies have seriously constrained the ongoing top-down decision style of the regime. Unable to contain local actors, who were engaged in the defence of local identities and interests, the central government blocked the process and postponed regionalization for a more favorable future context. Despite the failure of the 2012 regionalization initiative, the Romanian case is instructive for the way local actors may use windows of opportunity, which have been created by external pressure, in order to transform inertial regimes, as it is the case with the long-lasting administrative centralist regime in Romania.