Romania after Ceausescu: Post-Communist Communism?
Romania after Ceausescu: Post-Communist Communism?

Author(s): Katherine Verdery, Gail Kligman
Subject(s): Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Post-Communist Transformation
Published by: CEEOL Digital Reproductions / Collections
Summary/Abstract: In this essay, we raise far more questions that we answer; we leave unresolved the contradictions among accounts we heard or have read; and we are hesitant to predict the future course of events. Indeed, our strongest claim is that for Romania, any account pretending to greater certainty than we offer is questionable. We address four areas: the “revolution” of December 1989, the much-discussed matter of whether it and the elections produced a neo-Communist restoration, the postelection weakness of Ion Iliescu’s broadly mandated government as evident in events of June 13-15, 1990, and the broader issue of continuity and change in state-society relations. Our principal message is that the situation is generally chaotic, is fraught with contradictions, and will in all likelihood worsen before improving.

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