Regionalization in the interwar political discourse in Romania

Abstract

The research aims at identifying trends in reforming the administrative structure throughout the interwar period, associated to the forces that succeeded in the government and the central and regional elites. This paper will analyze these projects by looking at the debates preceding their implementation. We highlight the antagonistic political and ideological stances in what concerns the shape of administrative organization of the State -unitary state vs. federal state-, despite the unanimously accepted and stated purpose by the representatives of each approach, namely strengthening the newly formed state; a state that had significantly increased its size and population, while incorporating a significant number of minorities and was confronted with the task of harmonizing the various models (traditions) of administrative-territorial division of foreign inspiration. The draft administrative-territorial divisions thus also reflect cleavages such as center-periphery or the disjunction between "political" and "administrative" realms.