Romania: the One-Party Democracy?

Five months ago Romania was a one-party state led by the despised and somewhat loony Nicolae Ceausescu. Today, after a revolution that saw Ceausescu’s 24-year-long dictatorship ended by a firing squad, Romania is still pretty much of a one-party state, although now led by the popular Ion Iliescu. It says much about Romania’s decidedly undemocratic heritage and its current political culture that this transformation has been validated by popular choice. This week’s elections gave Iliescu the presidency with an almost Ceausescu-size 86% of the vote, while his National Salvation Front won two-thirds of the seats in the bicameral legislature.

The fairness of the voting has been disputed--international observers saw many irregularities--but the consensus seems to be that a wholly clean campaign would still have seen Iliescu and his party emerge victorious. Why that should be so is an intriguing and even disturbing question that is yet to be fully answered.

One obvious explanation lies in the image of Iliescu himself. Accurately or not, he is perceived by most Romanians as the man who saved the country from Ceausescu, taking power after December’s revolution and holding things together as Romania teetered on the edge of anarchy. What Romanians have been ready to overlook is that Iliescu and most other top leaders of his party at one time or another were deeply involved with the repressive Communist dictatorship. It no doubt helped, too, that Iliescu’s two main opponents for the presidency were out-of-touch emigres who vowed to move quickly to a free-market economy and the privatization of land and industry. Romanians can hardly be enamored with communism, which over 43 years succeeded in giving them a truly miserable standard of living. But neither do they seem interested in the prospect of sudden or radical change.

This clearly sets the country apart from Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary and Poland--Bulgaria is yet to be heard from--all of whose peoples, given a free choice, have not hesitated to make clear their disgust with communism and with Communists, under whatever new political label they have tried to compete. Romania’s (former?) Communists are now talking up the virtues of social democracy, and Iliescu promises to lead the country into the European Community. But what of civil liberties, independent unions, a free press at home? Here, little has been said by the new leadership. Here, too, perhaps ominously, little has been asked by the people.