Considerations on the democratic values of public administration in Romania before and after the fall of communism
Considerations on the democratic values of public administration in Romania before and after the fall of communism

Summary/Abstract: Initially perceived as “a Leviathan representing a threat to the citizens”, the public administration in Romania has undergone a complex process of reform and modernization, followed by the transition from an administration with discretionary powers regarding the “administered ones” (during the communist regime), towards an open and transparent administration, involved in the process of protecting citizens’ rights (as has been attempted in the past two decades). In the first stage of this study, we shall undertake the task of paying special attention to the organization of state power during the communist period, using the democratic values(utopian or not!)guaranteed to the citizens by the state and the public administration as a frame of reference. The analysis of the democratic values of that period betrays an irreconcilable duality between, on the one side, the political speeches and the party’s propaganda and, on the other side, the reality experienced and perceived by the citizens through first-hand experience. The 1989 Revolution came as a catalyzing solution to both realities, dividing the former means of structuring the relation of power between the citizens and the administration.

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