The Parliament in Romania during World War I
The Parliament in Romania during World War I

Summary/Abstract: Our work intends to present the institution of the Romanian Parliament during the First World War. In Romania, the parliamentary system was founded in 1866, by adopting a Constitution of Belgium influence. The state’s leading elite understood quickly that the fundamental law was “out of reach” to Romanians. Thus, although they largely accepted democracy and occidental modernization, this elite has imposed a control over the power by the adoption of a electoral system based on qualification, through which the access in Parliament was restricted by wealth and education. The limited political class affirmed that this mechanism is opened to all citizens and, in time, citizens will be able to gain the right to vote through economical and educational development. The electoral system based on qualification as an example for electing deputies and senators has been active until 1917, when during the war the Parliament modified the Constitution and enacted universal suffrage. In our presentation we intend to discuss the following issues: the importance of Parliament in Romanian democracy; the principles of Parliament elections; the organization of institution of Parliament; the Parliament crisis in the war period; the debate and adoption by Parliament, in the war period, the most important reform: electoral reform and land reform. At the end of the First World War the parliament institutions would suffer major changes, compared with pre-war realities, due to the institutionalization of the universal suffrage as well as to the territorial duplication as a consequence of the unification with following provinces: Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania with Romania.

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