The Europeanization of Romanian political parties: the ideological level

Abstract

This study attempts to explain the structuring and the articulation of the Romanian political landscape after more than a decade of democracy and in the specific context of the negotiations for the European integration. More specifically, the investigation bears on the manner in which the principal Romanian political parties integrate in their discourse the "European coordinate" and the modality in which these visions are articulated inside the party system. Therefore the analysis encloses a twofold approach: the systemic level and the party level. The seeming consensus in the auto-definition as European parties (vocationally) is striking. This leads to a closer examination of the parties' ideological manifestos, the discourses/speeches of the different political formations in order to try to decipher the options of each one so as to perceive the nuances/fine distinctions that individualize each party in relation to another. The parties analyzed here are: the Democrat Party (PD), the National Christian Democratic Peasant Party (PNŢCD), the Social Democrat Party (PSD), the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Union of Democratic Magyars of Romania (RDMSZ/UDMR) and the Great Romania Party (PRM). The exploration follows the party development essentially in the period 1996-2004 given the increasing importance gained by the European issue after the 1996 elections (the alternation in power and the victory of the pro-European coalition) and even more important, after the publication by the European commission in 1997 of the Agenda 2000.