Elections et electeurs aux XIXe et XXe siecles: une genealogie de l'etude electorale en Roumanie

Abstract

The paper analyses the main contributions to the development of the electoral study in Romania between the 19th and 20th century. It should be underlined from the very beginning that the interest in the study of the electoral system evolved with the democratic vote. Furthermore, the consolidation of the democratic representative system in the interwar period coincided with the publishing of the first researches in the social-electoral field. After 1937, the electoral system and the political regime suffered numberless modifications, culminating in the instauration of the totalitarian regime. The same period marked an involution phase for the study of social and political phenomena. In the context of elections without options and of formal vote, the electoral sociology has been deprived of its main subject matter. As a consequence, all writings having elections as main topic lost their scientific integrity and took the form of homage to the electoral socialist system. This genealogy of the electoral study in Romania pinpoints on the one hand the level of electoral know-how and analysis and on the other hand the characteristics of electors and elections between 1831-1989.