Identity Politics under National Communist Rule: the Rhetoric Manifestations of Nicolae Ceauşescu's "Nationality Policy" in 1970s Romania

This article aims to identify and analyze the variations of Nicolae Ceauşescu’s rhetoric concerning the ”co-inhabiting nationalities” during the 1970s as a legitimacy-seeking gambit. The article argues that two of the key explanatory variables that influenced the escalation of anti-minority discourse and measures were the Romanian-Hungarian interstate relations and the resistance of the ethnic Hungarians in Romania to aggressively assimilationist strategies. This analysis is inscribed into a wider field of research (Critical Discourse Analysis), and is aimed at ascertaining political discourse as a key generator and projector of political-societal developments and determinant of identity formation

Political violence in the late 1940s' Romania: regime power and peasant protests

This article explores the relationship between the type of power exercised by the political elites in the early stages of development of the communist regime in Romania and the reactions to peasant riots during the collectivization process. I focus on a single case study (riots in Arad county, in the summer off 1949) and elaborate on the use of political violence as a resource aimed at securing social control in the absence of strong institutional capacity. I review the first stages of collectivization (1949-1956), I identify and analyze short and longterms measures taken against the peasants who participated in the riots and their families; and I examine some of the measures taken to consolidate and expand the functions of the Secret Police as a direct consequence of the riots. The findings reflect on the weaknesses of a despotic regime that had not yet fully developed its infrastructural powers and relied on a high level of physical violence against actions it perceived as threats to its authority

The Hungarian Identity Discourse in Post-Communist Romania

This article explores the political aspects of national minority identity by analyzing the discourse of the political representative of the Hungarian minority in post-communist Romania (the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania). Political discourse (party programs, parliamentary debates) and document analysis are used to illustrate two levels of discourse: symbolic and substantive. The article shows that elite discourse has shaped the political role and claims of the Hungarian minority, which influenced the minority nation-building process, as well as the content of the diversity accommodation framework in post-communist Romania