Post-communist Romania: a peculiar case of divided government

Abstract

This paper sets out to explore the extent to which divided government and cohabitation have occurred on the post-communist Romanian political arena, while at the same time highlighting those regards in which it differs from other post-communist countries, such as Poland. Although the Romanian democratic experience does not allow for such an extensive evaluation of the presidential and legislative elections as would, for instance, be provided by the French case, a pattern for a peculiar form of cohabitation seems to be emerging in recent years. In essence, the conclusion of this paper is that the theoretical models and explanations on the emergence of divided government in semi-presidential regimes are not applicable to the Romanian case and that its consequences are highly significant to the political behavior of the heads of the public authorities in particular.