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Romania The Ruling Elite
Before the Soviet imposition of a communist regime in
1945,
party membership had been negligible, but immediately
thereafter
membership soared, reaching 250,000 by the end of that
year. Most
of the new members were from the working class or
peasantry, or
claimed to be, and by virtue of their social origins were
considered politically reliable. Most joined the party for
opportunistic reasons rather than out of new-found loyalty
to the
communist cause. These workers and peasants, although
relatively
uneducated, were hastily inducted into the
nomenklatura--
lists of key party and state positions matched with
politically
reliable candidates. They were immediately eligible for
some of the
most powerful positions the party had to offer, and they
soon had
cause to develop a sense of loyalty to the political
establishment
and its communist principles.
After the first decade of communist rule, the PCR
membership
included about 5 percent of the population over twenty
years of
age. Most of the members were over forty years old. The
social
composition of the party in 1955 revealed the favored
position of
the working class; though workers accounted for only 20
percent of
the general population, they represented 43 percent of the
membership. Peasants, the majority of the population, were
underrepresented at only 34 percent--still a remarkable
figure when
compared with their political position in the ancien
régime. The
intelligentsia, although overrepresented with 23 percent
of the
membership for their 9 percent of the population, had less
influence than before the war.
By the mid-1950s, a new political elite had
emerged--the
apparatchiks. Most were increasingly dogmatic
functionaries,
primarily of peasant origin, who had from the beginning
occupied
the key posts of the nomenklatura. As such, they
had served
as the driving force behind the massive social and
economic
transformation of the country and had risen to positions
of
relative comfort and security. By the late 1950s, however,
the old
guard was beginning to lose key positions to a growing
class of
better educated and more competent technocrats. It was a
more
liberal climate in which technical skills were better
appreciated,
and important appointments were based more on
qualifications than
on political loyalty. For a while the apparatchiks
successfully
resisted this trend, but as a result of the demand for
technical
competence, many were demoted to less important positions
or
removed to the provinces. The rapid growth of higher
education
provided an ever-increasing number of young technocrats to
replace
the apparatchiks. After Ceausescu consolidated his power,
however,
the period of political liberalization came to an end. By
1974,
with the anti-intellectual campaign well under way, the
apparatchiks were again firmly entrenched.
The social composition of the PCR in the 1980s affirmed
that
the battle against the intellectuals had been won. In
1987, 80
percent of the 3.6 million PCR members were of
working-class or
peasant origins. Approximately 10,000 of these members
constituted
the central nomenklatura--the true political elite.
This
elite, especially its core--the Political Executive
Committee--was
empowered to steer societal development in the direction
it deemed
necessary and became the sole arbiter of the nation's
social values
(see Romanian Communist Party
, ch. 4).
That poorly educated bureaucrats dominated the party
and
government had severe consequences for society. The low
standard of
living and cultural repression of the 1980s were directly
attributable to the attitudes and values of this ruling
elite, who
were anti-intellectual, antitechnocratic, hostile to
change, and
increasingly xenophobic and isolationist. More
specifically, these
prejudices were the attitudes and values of President
Ceausescu,
who presided over probably the smallest ruling elite in
Romanian
history. Ceausescu surrounded himself with apparatchiks
who
unabashedly contributed to his personality cult, and he
installed
members of his immediate and extended family in the most
powerful
party and government positions.
The political elite enjoyed a lifestyle much different
from
that of most citizens. Members of this group lived in
palatial
homes expropriated from the previous elite, were cared for
by
servants, protected by bodyguards, and whisked to work in
limousines. They had exclusive access to special shops and
commissaries that offered a wide variety of food and
luxury items.
Ceausescu lived in regal splendor. His residence in
suburban
Bucharest was protected by guards and traffic blockades.
Several
castles and palaces were renovated for his personal use
and were no
longer open to public visitation. He and his entourage
travelled in
a fleet of luxury cars, for which all traffic was stopped.
The conspicuous perquisites enjoyed by Ceausescu and
his circle
created resentment among the population, which was
suffering from
economic and cultural atrophy as well as political
repression.
Dissidents of various backgrounds called for the abolition
of
special privileges for the ruling elite, and by the late
1980s
disaffection was evident at all levels of society.
In the past, nationalism had played an important role
in the
legitimacy of the ruling elite and in mobilizing support
for its
plans for the country. By the late 1980s, however,
nationalistic
fervor was waning. The Soviet Union appeared much less
threatening,
and more than a few Romanians were drawn to Mikhail
Gorbachev's
political and economic reforms. Ceausescu's periodic
mobilization
campaigns during the 1970s and 1980s had damaged relations
between
the ruling elite and the rest of society to the point that
more and
more citizens were reluctant to rally around the PCR and
were less
accepting of its close-fisted political control and
economic
policies. Average citizens were weary of sacrificing to
build a
socialist utopia for posterity and would have preferred a
higher
living standard in their own lifetimes.
Data as of July 1989
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