ROMANIA'S FAILURE OF DEMOCRATIC PRACTICES

The economic crisis has led Romanian authorities to take some of the toughest austerity measures in Central and Eastern Europe. The measures adopted last year included a 25 percent cut in public salaries, 15 percent cuts in social assistance, including disability benefits and children’s allowances, and cuts in subsidies for medical treatments – hitting especially people with chronic diseases, such as AIDS, and mental conditions. A third of Romanians say they cannot afford even the basic necessities.

The reasons behind the protests on the street are obvious because there are no effective communication channels between the electorate and their representatives: no civic mobilisation, no functional pressure groups. As the individual cannot make use of the strength and visibility that being a part of a group brings, then he or she feels the need to resort to desperate gestures in order to draw attention to the personal plight.  Such individual gestures are caused by a failure of democratic practices in Romania. The Romanians lack a culture of public debate and negotiations. People do not trust and do not use either official institutions that could mediate between themselves and authorities or civil organisations in which they could get together and create public patterns of action. In this situation, what is left are desperate gestures which can attract the media and thus ensure attention.