„Strălucirea democrației ia ochii tuturor”: Constituția din 1923 între proiecte și contexte
„The brilliance of democracy catches everyone’s eyes”: the Constitution of 1923 between projects and contexts

Summary/Abstract: This study approaches an aspect of the adoption process of the Constitution of 1923, in order to shed a new light on the alternative visions with regard to the democratic construction of interwar Romania. At that time, the new Constitution was contested as an exercise in liberal authoritarianism. The leaders of the main opposition parties, Iuliu Maniu and Ion Mihalache, protested, including by boycotting the debates and by refusing to participate in the Coronation from Alba Iulia. However, as I will show in the following, the Constitution of 1923 did not create, but was itself tributary to the inherent imperfections of a peripheral state, unevenly modernized and late unified. Under ideal conditions, taking over some instruments proposed by the other preliminary drafts published at the time would have been desirable in itself. The alternative visions could not be though integrated, but only accepted and substituted for the PNL draft.

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