Consens și contestare. Societate și putere politică în România
Between consensus and dissent. Society and communist power.

Summary/Abstract: The first years of Ceausescu’s regime were a period of transition and rehabilitation both at the level of discourse and the practice of power in connection with society. From the perspective of the letters to power, the criticisms by those who were discontented were aimed more at the abuses of the party bureaucracy or state functionaries than the leader of the party. The Romanian society oscillated between consensus and dissent. On one hand, there was expressed adhesion to the projects of the regime, and, on the other hand, the same society criticized political or economic measures perceived as an intrusion into its privacy. Duplicity was equally a way of finding consensus and escape. The consensus lasted as long as the political power fulfilled its promises to society (access to goods, supply of food, rising salaries, access to information). In time, with the deterioration of living conditions and ideological pressures, the void left by the loss of popular support was filled by a repressive apparatus whose role was to maintain a state of fear and control the disappointments of the population.

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