„Ardealul pentru ardeleni” – federalism, autonomie și regionalism în discursul lui Alexandru Vaida-Voevod (1918-1923)
“Transylvania for Transylvanians” – Federalism, Autonomy and Regionalism in the Political Discourse of Alexandru Vaida-Voevod (1918-1923)

Summary/Abstract: At the end of the First World War, by uniting Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania, Romania’s territory and population doubled, and some political leaders in these provinces proposed the development of a certain regional autonomy. Despite the fact that interwar Romania would continue the tradition of centralism in the Old Kingdom, however, in the first years after the war there were intense discussions about the form of state organization. In this sense, through the present study we followed, on the one hand, the historiographical debate in Romania, on the occasion of the Centenary, on topics such as the Alba Iulia Resolution, autonomy and regionalization, and on the other hand, we analyzed the discourse of one of the most important political leaders in Transylvania: Alexandru Vaida-Voevod. A political figure with an intense activity at the beginning of the 20th century in Austro-Hungary, member of the Budapest Parliament, then Prime Minister in Romania and member of the Romanian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference, he was to become the most well-known voice that supported the acquisition of a regional identity for Transylvania. Thus, if in private discussions with Ion I. C. Brătianu, Vaida-Voevod even promoted the idea of federalization of Romania, in the public space he supported regionalization. Our case study is based on the formula “Transylvania for Transylvanians”, used during an interview by Alexadru Vaida-Voevod, which would provoke heated debates between the representatives of the Transylvanian National Party and their opponents. By the formula mentioned above, Vaida drew attention to the Transylvanians “dissatisfaction with centralist policies, on the one hand, and on the other, he supported the idea of a regionalism that would satisfy the regions” desire to contribute to the distinct development of the country.

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