Government Instability Indicators and the Exercise of limited "Consensus" in post-communist Romania 1992-2004

Olimid, Anca Parmena (2008): Government Instability Indicators and the Exercise of limited "Consensus" in post-communist Romania 1992-2004. Published in: Revista de stiinte politice - Revue des sciences politiques No. 20 (2008): pp. 76-81.

Abstract

During the 1990s post communist societies faced similar challenges at the level of executive government. Since the early studies of Rosenthal (1978), political science literature’s focus is on the different continuums of political stability.In recent years there has been an increased interest in analyzing the effects of political instability in post communist Romania. This article is an effort to look at the indicators of political instability (redefined as Government instability) in an unconsolidated democracy. The issue of political stability in post-communist Romania must of course be analyzed in relation to the challenges of reform and the sources of the limited consensus in government coalition in Romania (1992-2004).

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: government, post-communist society, political stability,crisis of governality
• Subjects: H - Public Economics > H1 - Structure and Scope of Government > H11 - Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government

References

Uriel Rosenthal, Political Order: Rewards, Punishments and Political Stability, Alphen aan den Rijn, Sijthoff & Noordhoff, 1978, p. 48.

Jose Casanova, Ethno-Linguistic and Religious Pluralism and Democratic Construction in Ukraine in Barnett R. Rubin, Jack L. Snyder, Post-Soviet Political Order: Conflict and State Building, London, Routledge, 1998, p. 84.

James Chowning Davies, James Davies, When Men Revolt and why, New Jersey, Transaction Publishers, 1997, p. 231.

See Svante Ersson, Jan-Erik Lane, Political Stability in European Democracies in “European Journal of Political Research”, Volume 11, Issue 3, pp. 245-264.

Apud C. Zopounidis, K. Pentaraki, M. Doumpos, A review of country risk assessment approaches: New empirical evidence in Constantin Zopounidis, Panos M. Pardalos, Managing in Uncertainty: Theory and Practice, Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998, p. 11.

It should be noted that in the literature the conceptualization of party government focus exclusively on cabinet government (the core of government regards decisionmaking with respect to the control of ministries (See Jaap Woldendorp, Hans Keman, Ian Budge, Party Government in 48 Democracies (1945-1998): Composition, Duration, Personnel, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000, p. 16).

David Phinnemore, The EU and Romania: Great Expectations, London, The Federal Trust for Education & Research, 2007, p. 32.

András Bozóki, John T. Ishiyama, The Communist Successor Parties of Central and Eastern Europe, New York, M.E. Sharpe, 2002, p. 395.

Ibidem, pp. 32-33.

Steven Roper, Romania: The Unfinished Revolution, London, Routledge, 2000, pp. 82-84.

Grigore Pop-Eleches, Whither Democracy? The Politics of Dejection in the 2000 Romanian Elections, Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, 2001, p. 5, http://repositories.cdlib.org/iseees/bps/2001.

A Political Chronology of Europe, London, Routledge, 2001, p. 256.

Jaap Woldendorp, Hans Keman, Ian Budge, op. cit,, p. 77.

Ibidem, p. 78.

Răzvan Grecu, Instabilitatea guvernamentală în România postcomunistă in „Studia Politica. Romanian Political Science Review”, Volume I, no. 3/2001, p. 792.

The lack of interest in political science literature to the government stability in post communist Romania is explained by the varying changes in the number and character of governments in most of the countries in the region Cristian Preda and Răzvan Grecu report similar scores with respect to governments in the mentioned period. For more see, Cristian Preda, Sorina Soare, Regimul, partidele şi sistemul politic din România, Bucureşti, Nemira, 2008, p. 129; Răzvan Grecu, op. cit., p. 792).