REFORMAREA SISTEMULUI ELECTORAL DIN ROMÂNIA ÎN GÂNDIREA CONSERVATOARE (1866-1914)
THE RENEWAL OF THE ROMANIAN ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN THE CONSERVATIVES’ THINKING (1866-1914)

Summary/Abstract: At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the 20th century, the problem of changing the electoral system established in 1866 and changed in 1884, was a very important one. There was a real dispute about this problem because of the political parties and groups, and because of the cultural personalities of the time. The dispute about the electoral reform was present in newspapers, debates in Parliament, by publishing some booklets, organizing some conferences and public meetings. In this study the author discusses the attitude of the Romanian conservatives against electoral reform. Some conservative personalities who expressed the point of view of the Conservative Party concerning this problem were: M. C. Epureanu, Gr. M. Sturdza, Lascăr Catargiu, Alexandru Lahovary, Titu Maiorescu, P. P. Carp, Nicolae Filipescu, M. Eminescu, Paul Greceanu, etc.. From the political conservative discourse about the reform of the electoral system we can get clearly the idea of rejection of any change of the electoral legislation. The conservative’s adversity against the electoral reform is explained not only through the fear that once the right of election would be widened, the conservatives could loose the privileges specific to their social class, but also through the fact that they were against modernizing the country. Their opposition came mostly from their deep belief that in a backward country as Romania, with a generalized illiteracy, where the corruption ruled, there could not be made reform after reform in a fast way. The conservatives said that introducing the universal vote could bring more harm than good in the Romanian society. Without opposing the idea of progress, they only tried to moderate the rhythm of reform. The conservatives didn’t exclude the possibility of introducing the universal vote, but they delayed it until an unknown date, which was closely tied to the raise of the cultural degree and of the economic standard of the people. On the other hand, it is also true that the Conservative Party had a great culpability in the fact that Romanian society had such a low level of development. In fact, the conservative’s attitude against the idea of an electoral reform was due to the ideological “Junimist” concept of the forms without substance. The conservative’s opposition, as well as of some important members of the Liberal Party, against the widening of the vote right was due to the fact that, usually, in the political manifestoes and programs made by different political groups, in the theoretical writing of some intellectuals, that reform was linked to the agrarian reform. The latter reform was frightening them more than giving some political rights.

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