The Internal Organization of Romanian Political Parties Alexandra Barbus Toma Burean

The Internal Organization of Romanian Political Parties Alexandra Barbus alexandra.barbus@gmail.com Toma Burean burean@fspac.ro Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Political Science Public Administration and Communication Political Science Department I. The creation of political parties in Romania A complex legislation governs the establishment and the functioning of political parties in Romania. It is an outcome of the negotiations between political parties. This section will focus on the laws that ensure the creation, dissolution and internal organization of political parties in Romania. This is followed by an account of the consequences and a description of the political parties selected for this study. We claim that political parties in Romania are highly centralized, with a leadership that dominates the organization. Recent changes of legislation and experimenting by political parties are aimed to democratize the institutional framework and bring the voice of the grass roots party members into the decision-making process. Starting from the 1989 revolution, the threshold for the establishment of new political parties was gradually raised. The decree of 31 st December1989 issued by the Council of the National Salvation Front, an umbrella organization that filled the void of power after the communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu was overthrown, referred exclusively to the founding of political parties. It banned the fascist political parties or those that are against the rule of law. The founding of a new political party required 251 members, a party program and financial means to support itself. The 1996 law of political parties included a raise of the threshold to 10,000 founding members distributed in at least 15 counties with no less than 300 in each county. Additionally, there were detailed descriptions of how political parties should be organized. The 2003 law on political parties raised it to 25,000 founding members distributed in at least 18 counties and Bucharest with no less than 700 members in each county. These restrictions are unprecedented in the European Union. France, Sweden and Ireland do not have rules for the 1

founding of parties. Bulgarian laws require 50 founding members while Croatian law demands for 100. The burdening requirements for registration and the 5% electoral threshold made it very difficult for new parties to enter the parliament. Paradoxically, new political parties still managed to enter the parliament by receiving safe seats from a more popular party. In this way the Conservative Party (Partidul Conservator-PC) or The National Union for the Progress of Romania (Uniunea Națională pentru Progresul României, UNPR) gained representation and, sometimes, had bargaining power in deciding outcomes on votes of no confidence or the confidence vote for a new government. Some small parties, like the FC (Civic Force, Forța Civică), PMP (Partidul Mișcarea Populară, The Popular Movement Party) or PLR (Partidul Liberal Reformator, The Liberal Reformed Party) and PPDD (Peoples Party Dan Diaconescu, Partidul Poporului Dan Diaconescu) were officially registered, before the enactment of the 1996 law that restricted the creation of parties. They remained inactive until politicians that wanted to lead a new party took over their leadership changed their label and ran in the local, parliamentary and European elections in 2012. The current law (114/2015) has annulled the restrictions related to the creation of political parties and reduced the number of founding members to three. It allows local political parties to register. Currently political parties can enter the parliament if they pass a 5% threshold. Alternatively, to encourage local parties, if a party obtains at least 20% in four counties and does not obtain 5% nationwide it can be accounted for seats in Parliament. Although countries like Sweden or France do not have explicit rules regarding the dissolution of political parties, in Romania parties can be dissolved in specific instances. A party can dissolve itself or can be abolished by the Bucharest Court of Justice and the Constitutional Court. The Bucharest Court of Justice abolishes a political party if it did not hold a general meeting for five years or did not place candidates in two consecutive elections (presidential elections are excluded) in at least 75 constituencies for local elections, or a list of candidates in at least one electoral district, or candidates in at least three electoral districts at the parliamentary elections. A local party has to place candidates in local elections in at least 75 electoral districts in order to prevent dissolution. The 2003 law mentioned that political parties have to gather at least 50,000 votes nationally in order to prevent dissolution, a requirement removed in 2015. 2

Similarly to other European constitutions, the Romanian Constitution has stipulations that regulate party activities. In Germany, Italy and Bulgaria fascist parties and organizations that do not respect democratic principles are explicitly banned. In Romania, the Constitutional Court decides upon the constitutionality of a party. Article 37 states that parties that are against political pluralism, rule of law, sovereignty and territorial integrity and independence of Romania are considered unconstitutional. The 2015 law that regulates the internal organization of political parties does not permit parties to be innovative with their structure, with the exception for UDMR (The Democratic Hungarian Union from Romania - Uniunea Democrată Maghiară din România). Formally, UDMR, is an association that represents the interests of the Hungarian national minority and it is similar to a party only when it runs in elections. Even if UDMR is not de facto a political party its organization is very similar to that of the other parties. Romanian parties use the territorial principle of organization and the organizational structures differ only in terms of labels. All political parties have a general assembly and an executive body. General assemblies must meet at least once every four years and local branches are allowed to have separate bank accounts and act as autonomous legal entities. Some political parties have special organizations for the Romanians living abroad. For example PNL (The National Liberal Party- Partidul Național Liberal) is the only party that has a branch in Bucharest that is called PNL Diaspora for the citizens that live abroad. PSD (The Social Democratic Party - Partidul Social Democrat) allows its members that live in other countries to create associations of party members while UNPR has created a Department for the Romanians Living Abroad. The number of registered political parties reflects the consequences of the changing regulations that target the founding of political parties. In 1993 there were 152 political parties that were officially registered. Currently (January 2016), there are 88 parties that are officially registered. 21 parties registered after the new law on political parties was voted in Parliament in March 2015. According to the 2012 parliamentary election results two electoral alliances (ARD and USL), one political party and the organization representing the Hungarian minority gained representation in Parliament. Additionally, there are 18 seats in the lower chamber of representatives (Chamber of Deputies-Camera Deputaților) allocated to 18 organizations that represent ethnic minorities other than the Hungarian ethnic group and which obtained at least 3

10% from the national electoral coefficient 1. These seats are open for election and are subject to different electoral rules 2 although the same national organizations have won these seats since 1992. Since 2012, the parliamentary parties are PSD (139 seats), PNL (109 seats), UDMR (17 seats), UNPR (42 seats), PP-DD (7 seats), PC (12 seats) and the organizations representing the minorities other than the Hungarian one (18 seats). In 2015 the parliamentary parties occupied 343 seats out of the 383 seats of the lower representative chamber. The other MPs are either former party members or members of new political parties (Chamber of Deputies, 2015) and are listed as independent. The law on political parties allows defection from the party on whose list the representative was elected, but if they join or create a new party they are not allowed to bear the label of that party in parliament. This is why in the Chamber of Deputies, in 2015, there were 40 independents that did not get elected as independents. Five parties are represented in the Senate, the higher representative chamber. These are PSD (61 seats), PNL (54), UDMR (8), UNPR (21) and PC (6). In 2015, sixteen senators were independent and currently belonging to newly created political parties (The Senate, 2015). The Senate and the lower chamber have very similar roles in enacting legislation. In this paper we will focus on the internal organizations of four political parties: PSD, PNL, UDMR and UNPR. According to a September 2015 survey these are the parties that would pass the 5% threshold if parliamentary elections were to be organized next week (INSCOP 2015). PSD is the party that is the successor of the Romanian Communist Party (Gherghina et al. 2011) and was created from FSN (National Salvation Front- Frontul Salvarii Nationale), an umbrella organization created after the 1989 revolution. It is an internally created (Duverger 1964) political party, most members being former communist party members and second echelon leaders (Stan, 2012). PNL is a historical political party, revived in 1990. It was internally created in 1875, by a group of industrialists that were members of parliament. UDMR is an externally created union. Formally it is an organization that was created to represent the political interests of the Hungarian minority. Its leaders were writers and artists that had been dissidents during the communist regime. UNPR is an intra parliamentary party. It was created from splinters from PNL and PSD. Parties created within the parliament are dominant in Romania. They are highly 1 The national electoral coefficient is the number of votes required to obtain a mandate in Parliament for a candidate whose party passed the 5% threshold 2 The complete list of parties that represent the ethnic minorities other than the Hungarian one is found in the appendix 4

centralized, are dependent on the parliamentary groups and their goals are to preserve and gain more seats in parliament. This is most evident in the smaller UNPR. Although its popular support was below 5% they successfully managed to secure seats in parliament by convincing PSD to offer them safe seats in the elections of 2012. Lipset and Rokkan (1967) claimed that political parties have to pass four thresholds in order to be able to press demands from the political system. One of them is the threshold of representation that refers to the strategies employed by new movements in order to get representation. The 2015 laws on political parties lowered this threshold. It facilitated the creation of new parties, by lowering restrictions on founding political parties and removed the territoriality organizing principle to allow local parties to compete in local elections. The internal organization of political parties is regulated and makes parties look similar and appear as any mass party with a hierarchical organization. The next section focuses on the role of the party members. Although the party organization mimics the mass party, the party membership and their role are not following the typology of the mass party described by Duverger. II. Party membership In 1988 the membership of the Romanian Communist Party had reached 3.7 million, 23% of the population of Romania (Bachman 1989). Following the regime change, in 1992 party membership dropped to 5.5% and to 3.6% (675,474) in 2007 (Biezen, Mair, Poguntke 2012) and to 3.1% according to a 2012 survey. Table 1.Party membership in Romania Party label 2007 2011 2013 2015 PSD 290,116 409,833 509,551 533,000* PNL 116,134 131,908 115,181 PDL 86,461 86,817 138,714 - UNPR - 49,051 354,397 500,000** 5

PP-DD - 31,929 66,071 - UDMR - - - 97,000 PC 90,663 53,675 55,391 *Mediafax.ro, 2015. Historical elections in PSD: 533,000 party members are expected to vote for a single candidate, http://www.mediafax.ro/politic/alegeri-istorice-in-psd-533-000-demembri-asteptati-la-urne-pentru-a-vota-un-singur-candidat-14811936 (accessed 15.10.2015) **agerpres.ro, 2015. UNPR united with PPDD; Oprea: We have over 500,000 party membershttp://www.agerpres.ro/politica/2015/08/02/unpr-a-fuzionat-cu-ppdd-oprea-avem-peste- 500-000-de-membri-de-partid-15-03-39 accessed (15.10.2015) Source: The Registry of Political Parties- The Bucharest Court, http://tmb.ro/index.php/partidepolitice accessed (20.12.2015) PSD took advantage of the organizational legacy of the FSN, umbrella organization created immediately after the communist regime fell. It had an extensive organizational structure. In the 1990ies its membership was low. Since 2010 however it grew and PSD became the political organization with the largest membership in the country (Gherghina and Spac 2015). The organization of a 2009 and a 2012 referendum on the dismissal of the president showed, that given a strong organizational network, PSD can mobilize a large number of voters. UNPR, a party created in 2010, showed a remarkable rise in membership. According to the political party leader Gabriel Oprea the aim is to have over 1 million members in 2016 when parliamentary elections are organized. These figures have to be taken with caution since it is known that party leaders tend to boost membership figures to show how popular is the party (Biezen van 2003). Currently this party has 5% electoral support a rise from 1% in 2014. UNPR focused on recruiting disgruntled politicians from all the political parties. It absorbed in 2015 the populist PPDD, and recruited famous actors to increase its popularity. PNL and PDL (Partidul Democrat Liberal- The Liberal Democratic Party) united in 2014 under the PNL name. Their membership fluctuated and remained close to 100,000 supporters. Rules for acquiring party membership 6

The legislation covering political parties has clear stipulations regarding party members, allowing anyone with voting rights to become party members. Citizens cannot be members of two or more political parties at the same time. Once a person has joined a new political party that person loses the previous party membership. However, if someone is a member of an organization representing national minorities, such as UDMR, that person is entitled to join a second political party without losing its membership in the national minority organization. PSD, PNL, UDMR and UNPR have very similar rules of acquiring membership with small but significant differences. While UNPR and UDMR follow only the requirements posited in the law of political parties, PNL and PSD have additional conditions. PSD conditions membership to having a moral ethos that respects the country s national interest. The statute mentions that Romanian emigrants can become members of PSD and create local branches, if the host country legal framework allows it. PSD allows European Union nationals to join, if their domicile is in Romania. PNL, similarly to PSD, requires honesty and good reputation from its future members but also sets interdictions. Thus, citizens that have a criminal record related to the penal code, were condemned for corruption, have been proven a collaborator of the Securitate, the infamous secret police during the communist regime, or have previously been in the leadership of the Romanian Communist Party cannot be members. Most Romanian parties require membership fees. PNL set its contributions to 8 euro/year for regular members while, for elected officials, the contribution increases. PSD has a proportional system of fees. Retired persons pay 2.7 euro/year, regular members 13.5 euro/year, local elected officials 271.7 euro/year and MPs pay 407 euro/year. UNPR is the only party that does not request membership fees (Bratu 2015, Toader 2015). UDMR expects voluntary contributions from its members. Rights and obligations of party members With the exception of UDMR, the rights and obligations of party members are numerous. Members of all parties have the right to have political initiative; they have the freedom of expressing their opinions, to be informed on the party activities, to run in elections, to be consulted on policies and to receive legal advice. UDMR mentions that its members have the right to vote and to be elected. However, this right is non-existent for the e-members that register online to become party members (UDMR, 2013 art. 12). Party members from all parties have to know the statutes and the program of their political platform, pay their monthly fee and respect the party discipline. Although, all party statutes allow party members to freely express their 7

opinions, PSD, PNL and UNPR do not allow their members to have and publicly express opinions that are contrary to the party program in order to avoid factionalism. The party member s role in electing the Romanian political party leaders is limited. Delegates that form the National Conference (UNPR), National Convention (PNL), the Congress (PSD) or Delegates Convention (UDMR) regularly elect the leadership. One party experimented twice with improving the access of their members to the decision making process. In 2004, PSD, for only one time, organized party primaries to elect the candidates for the 2004 elections. PSD was the only party that organized for the first time primaries for its 2004 parliamentary election candidates (Gherghina and Spac, 2015). This method however was abandoned due to administrative and cost related problems (Gherghina 2013). Since 2004, the organization of primaries is optional but it was abandoned as a selection method. In 2015, the same party permitted members to directly elect the president of the party. There was only one candidate that ran for office. He was elected by 97% of the party members and the reported turnout was 80%. In 2010, the president of PNL proposed direct elections for the party president office. Yet in 2014, the National Convention elected Alina Gorghiu as president of PNL. Kelemen Hunor (UDMR) and Gabriel Oprea (UNPR) were also single candidates for presidential office elected by the delegates of the party. Regular party members have symbolic power in selecting candidates for elections, selecting the leadership or influencing party policy. Formally members can propose candidates but this rarely happens although party members can choose delegates to be sent to the National Congress, which elects the party leadership. Types of membership Political parties in Romania have regular fee paying members and a separate category of volunteers. Additionally, UMDR has e-members that can register on their website. They are more similar to party supporters since they are not paying fees and do not have voting rights. PNL grants honorary membership to citizens that promoted center right values. Similarly to PNL, PSD has members that pay fees. PNL and PSD label the smallest organizational unit members as militants, persons that have to promote the ideology of the party and organize recruitment campaigns. UNPR party members do not have to pay fees. Suspension and termination of membership 8

Party members have the right to withdraw from the party, once they sign a statement that they will do so, or when they join a new political party. PSD and PNL attempted to reform their political parties by introducing regulations regarding the termination of membership for the party members that were convicted or accused of corruption or they are under prosecution for conflicts of interest. PNL is the only party that has stipulations that exclude political party members trialed and convicted for corruption. The exclusion extends to politicians that collaborated with the Romanian communist secret police. Despite this rule, the honorary president of PNL, Mircea Ionescu Quintus, who has collaborated with the secret police, was not excluded from the party. Access to the decision-making process by party members and supporters The process of democratization of the decision making process within the Romanian political parties is feeble. PSD s center dominated leadership (Gherghina and Spac, 2015) has been willing to open up the process of selection of candidates and choosing the party leader. In 2004 the party organized primaries for the legislative elections. Due to high costs and increasing influence of the local leaders called barons, the primaries were not repeated, although party regulations allows it (Gherghina 2013). In 2015, PSD encouraged all party members to participate to the election of the party s president. Several party officials announced that they will run for the office, but at the end there was only one candidate. The other political parties allow local branches to elect candidates for elections, but invariably the central leadership decides on the list of candidates and the order on the list. It is also common practice for political parties to place high-ranking party leadership in safe constituencies. III. Basic organizational structures (units) of a party The Romanian political parties have organizations that mimic the administrative organization of the country. The basic organizational unit for PNL exists at the constituency level. It is composed of at least 10 members. Similarly to Duverger s description of the cell or militia, it is a hierarchical structure that is supposed to keep up a constant connection with citizens, organize recruitment campaigns and assist the electoral campaign and the elections in that district. Each basic unit has a president, a vice-president a secretary and a treasurer. These form the Local Political Bureau. The president is elected by 50% plus one vote by the members of the basic organizational unit. If no one garners the majority required to win, a second round is organized 9

for the first two competitors, but only if the candidate in the second place requests in writing a second round. In case of a draw, the candidates length of membership is decisive. The candidate that came in second place is elected as vice president. The president chooses the secretary and the treasurer. The basic organization can formally nominate candidates but they have to be validated by the County Political Bureau. Political parties require a 6 to 12 months long membership for a person to run for any office. This rule however can be avoided if the central bureau approves it. In this way political parties can offer safe seats to potential coalition members and offer leadership positions to outsiders and to leaders of absorbed political parties. This is a widely used practice by political parties with the exception of UDMR. For example, UNPR members of parliament won their offices by running in districts that have wide scale PSD support. PSD and UNPR have similar organizational units as PNL and similar election methodologies. PSD has a two tier basic structure composed of the party members group and the basic unit constituted at the polling station level. The party members group is a small congregation of party militants that can have a minimum of 5 members and can function in the districts of a city or representing a certain street in a city. They elect a coordinator that is labeled a militant PSD member. The group can take the place of the basic, constituency level organization where it is absent. The basic constituency level organization consists of a general assembly and a bureau that is elected once every two years. The general assembly of this unit can be summoned if at least one third of its members request it. The Bureau is formed out of a president, a secretary and one to three members. UNPR s basic organization has two units: the Conference of the organization and the Permanent Political Bureau. The Conference has to meet at least once a year. The Permanent Political Bureau is a larger organization than at other parties and its size depends on the size of the locality. Thus in a municipal locality there can be up to 27 members; there is one president, 9 to 11 vice-presidents, a secretary and 6 to 10 members. UDMR s basic organizations are strongly dependent on hierarchically superior organizations. The basic organizations can nominate candidates proportional to the number of Hungarians living in that locality and the number of votes cast for the party. In case the electoral results are below expectations, or if the Union s statute is infringed, the county organization can dissolve the basic organization leadership and organize new elections. Elected mayors or vice mayors are obliged to become the leaders of the basic organizations. Similarly to PSD, the basic organization consists of a general assembly and 10

a Single Local Committee. UDMR politicians that are locally elected in the village or city council are automatically members of the Single Local Committee. IV. Local and regional party structures The centralization of political parties can be tracked by inspecting their territorial structures. PSD is organized into different autonomous structures, in accord with the territorial principle. There are four territorial organizations: the basic unit, the local organization, representing a village or a city, the county organization and the Bucharest municipality organization. The decision making (leading) bodies decide by simple majority vote. The open ballot is used for decision-making procedures. For elections within the party, the secret ballot is used. The basic unit has at least 20 members and is led by the General Assembly of the Members (all the members of the unit) and the Organizations Board. The local organization that represents a city or a village is composed of the General Assembly of the Members, the Organizations Board and The Executive Committee. It exerts authority over the network of basic units. The county organization has seven organs: the County Conference, the County Board, the County Executive Committee, the County Permanent Bureau, the Executive Secretary, the County Committee of Discipline and Arbitration and the County Committee of Internal Financial Control. The Bucharest municipality organization has the same structure as the county organizations. Similarly to PSD, PNL has the same internal structure: the organization corresponding to a constituency or the basic unit, the local organization, the county organization and the Bucharest municipality organization. The basic unit has at least 10 members. The local organization consists of the Coordination Committee and the Local Political Bureau. The county organization encompasses all the local organizations from that particular county. The county organizations have a Coordination Committee, a political Bureau and the County Director College whose members are the presidents of the local organizations and the mayors from PNL. They convene four times a year. The Bucharest municipality organization includes all the organizations from Bucharest. The Coordination Committee is its decision-making body at the city district level. 11

UDMR follows the same territorial principle. The basic units (corresponding to a village or a city) are autonomously organized within the county organizations and have their own leading committees and presidents. A local unit may be formed out of more than one village or city organization (basic units). The president of the county organization can call for new elections for replacing the executive bodies (the president and the local leading committee) of the basic units in certain conditions. The autonomous status of each local unit allows for the establishment their own structure and their own rules, under the assumption that the entire activity follows the party statute. The basic units can establish their own agenda according to the social and economic context and organizes recurrent meetings with citizens. Through its delegates, the basic unit is represented at a county and national level. The county units embody all the basic units within a county and are in charge with coordinating their activity. In the county the decision-making bodies are composed of the Delegates Assembly, the County Representatives Committee and the Permanent County Committee. The Delegates Assembly elects the President and the Permanent County Committee. The Delegates Assembly elects the President of the county organization and the members of the Unions Representatives Committee. UNPR has an organizational structure layered on three levels: village or city organizations (the basic units), county organizations and the Bucharest municipality organization. The village or city organizations focus on promoting the party within the communities, recruiting new members, getting involved in local projects together with the local authorities, coordinating the activity of the local authorities UNPR members. Two leading structures can be identified at this level: the Organizations Conference that elects the members of the Permanent Political Bureau, the delegates for the National Conference and the Permanent Political Bureau. The county organization has identical decision-making bodies: the Organization Conference and the Permanent Political Bureau. The Conference has three types of members: the members of the Permanent Political Bureau, the members of the Parliament (and other leading authorities at the county level) and the delegates from the local organizations. The members of the Conference elect the secretary, the vice-presidents and the members of the Permanent Political Bureau. The Permanent Political Bureau has a president, a secretary, a treasurer, 9 to 13 vice-presidents and 14 to 16 members. Its role is to apply the strategy of the party, leads the activity of all local organizations and manages the electoral campaigns. 12

V. Central party structures The success of a political party relies on the presence of a permanent organization (Hofmeister, Grabow, 2011) in which power is concentrated within small groups acting inside the political party (Michels, 2001). In this section we focus on the distribution of power within these party structures. PSD incorporates twelve national bodies: the Congress, the President, the Honorary President, the Executive President, the Vice-presidents, the National Board, the National Executive Committee, the National Permanent Bureau, the National Committee of Discipline and Arbitration, the National Committee of Internal Financial Control, the General Secretary and the National Financial Committee. The Congress establishes the party strategy, elects the president, the vice-presidents, the general secretary and the other members of the National Board and it nominates the presidential candidate and the prime minister. The Congress is summoned every four years. Delegates elected by the county organizations compose it. At least two thirds of the total number of the delegates ha has to attend in order to validate the congressional meeting. Between Congress meetings, the National Board is the main leading structure. The Congress elects the members of the National Board among the candidates chosen by different local and territorial or auxiliary structures (the youth organization, the women organization). The Board President coordinates the actions of the Board. The National Executive Committee is the governing structure between the two meetings of the National Board. The Committee is the body that decides upon the electoral strategy of the party and selects members to become part of the Government. The National Permanent Bureau has weekly meetings and implements the decisions taken by the Congress, the National Board or the National Executive Committee. It is the leading executive body. The Executive President coordinates the communication activities: the internal communication between the county organizations and the communication with different institutions or central and local authorities and political parties. The executive president and the vice presidents are elected by the Congress. PSD has currently 14 vice presidents. The other national structures (National Committee of Discipline and Arbitration, the National Committee of Internal Financial Control, the General Secretary and the National Financial Committee) are in charge with mediating among different national structures these verify the 13

financial activity of the party. The PSD Parliamentary group is autonomous and has its own rules sanctioned by the National Executive Committee, its own board and candidates for the Permanent Parliamentary Committees. The board members and candidates are internally elected. PNL s national organizations are: the National Convention (similar to the Congress of PSD), the National Board, the National Director College and the National Political Bureau (PNL, 2015). The National Convention, being the first structure in terms of decision-making, is considered the unique body having the power of establishing the general strategy and policy of the party and is called every 4 years. The second most important central structure is the National Board, responsible for leading the party between the two meetings of the National Convention and implementing the decisions of the National Convention. The board is the one electing the PNL candidate for the prime minister, adopts and implements the governmental strategy, approves the electoral policies and elects the vice-presidents. Now PNL has 31 vice presidents. The members of the National Board are: members of National Director College, PNL ministers, PNL members of the Parliament, presidents of the county organizations. The third central structure is the National Director College, the leading structure between the National Board meetings. The members of the National Director College meet every month, discuss and approve the current political actions of the party, nominate the candidate for the President of the Chamber of Deputies and propose coalitions with the other parties. The National Political Bureau is in charge with the entire activity of the party between the two meetings of the National Director College. The delegates elect, through secret ballot, some of its members during the first meeting of the National Board, summoned after the National Convention. In addition, within PNL, there are three national committees that enforce the rules, the ethical principles and the implementation of the governing principles of the party. PNL s parliamentary group promotes the party policy within the Parliament. It has its own set of regulations set by the National Political Bureau. The central structures of UDMR are the Congress, the Unions Representatives Board, the Permanent Board of the Union and the Union Presidium (UDMR, 2015). The executive body of UDMR is the Executive Presidium. The advisory central structures are: the Advisory Committee of Territorial Presidents, the Advisory Committee of Platforms and the Committee of Mayors and Advisors, while the control structures are the Supervisory Regulatory Committee, thecensors Committee and the Ethical and Discipline Committee. 14

The UDMR Congress is summoned once every four years for electing its leadership and once every two years for ordinary sessions. It decides the internal and external policy, the regulations and the official program of the Union and elects the President of the Union. The Unions Representatives Board runs the party between congresses. It has two meetings per year and decides upon the medium term strategies. In addition, the Unions Representatives Board is the structure deciding the bylaws for all the others structures (with the exception of the congress). The Permanent Board of the Union is the decision making body between two meetings of the Union Representatives Board. Its members congregate at least 4 times per year. It manages the current activity of the Union, elects the members of the Government and approves the yearly budget. The Union Presidium is the structure in charge with the Union activity between the two meetings of the Permanent Board of the Union while the other central structures have enforcement roles. The Parliamentary Group of UDMR decides upon the Unions actions in Parliament. The Parliamentary group members elect their own leadership. UNPR has a similar structure to the previously described organizations. Its national structures are: the National Conference (similar to the Congress of the others parties), the National Board, the National Executive Committee and the National Permanent Bureau The highest leading structure is the National Conference which is composed of delegates representing the territorial structures and the members of the National Board. The National Conference elects the President of UNPR, the Executive President of UNPR, the General Secretary and the 15 Vice-presidents. The same authority elects the members of the National Board. The National Board has annual meetings and it is the leading executive power between the conferences. It has 380 members elected for four years by the county conferences. The Board analyzes the activity of the parliamentary groups, approves the budget of the party, enforces the decisions of the National Conference and elects the president of the National Board. In addition, within the National Board there are 15 specialized departments each of them focusing on a different topic (political expertise, economic expertise, national strategy, social dialog, women, youth and sport, family protection and equal opportunity, agriculture, environment protection, infrastructure, education and research, health, social order, culture, justice and Romanians everywhere). The National Executive Committee meets once every month and is in charge with implementing the decisions of the National Board and the strategy of the party. It supervises the activity of the local organizations and nominates candidates for public office. The National Permanent Bureau, 15

considered to be the operational leading structure of the party, has weekly meetings. This structure is the one coordinating the activity of all UNPR organizations and organizes the electoral campaign. UNPR has an Arbitration Committee and a Censors Committee constituted at a national level and having authority over all UNPR structures. The political party law does not give much room for organizational innovation. The Executive President is responsible of coordinating the vice presidents and the specialized departments activities and the county structures activities. VI. Party Leaders The party leaders role has expanded in the last decades that lead to the presidentialization of politics (Poguntke and Webb, 2005). Increasingly, political parties appear to be electoral organizations dominated by a leader rather than teams with several prominent candidates (Mughan, 2000). Moreover, campaigns are determined by the image of the party leaders (Kenig 2008). Delegates elect the Romanian party leaders. The selection procedures are similar. Presidents have four years mandates with remarkably similar responsibilities. In PSD there are four levels of individual leadership and the key positions are the following: the President, the Honorary President, the Executive President and the Vice-president. The President of PSD leads the entire activity of the party, the activity of the National Executive Committee and of the National Permanent Bureau, being responsible of to the Congress (National Convention). The president heads two additional structures: the National Executive Committee and the National Permanent Bureau and represents the party at meetings, moderates the Congress activities and the Executive Committee and the National Permanent Bureau meetings. The Honorary President is chosen by the Congress for a term of four years and has the voting rights in the national bodies of the party s leadership. The third level of individual leadership is occupied by the Executive President who coordinates the activity at a central level, is in charge of the internal communication with the territorial organizations (inside and outside the country) and supervises the communication with the local and central authorities. PSD has 21 vicepresidents chosen by the Congress. They have different responsibilities according to their personal competencies, leading national or territorial structures. 16

The leadership is chosen in the following manner: a Nomination Committee is formed by the PSD President, the General Secretary, and the presidents of the local structures (organizations). One person is elected president of the Nomination Committee. All the nominations have to be sent to the Committee. The Congress validates the nominations and includes them on the ballot paper, used by the Congress that elects the president. Up to 2015 the electoral body for the president was the Congress and in 2015 he (Liviu Dragnea) was elected for the first time by party members. Party members elect the PSD president. The elections process is established by the National Permanent Bureau and approved by the National Executive Committee. The former party president and incumbent Prime Minister, Victor Ponta, had been president for six years. The current President of PSD is the 7 th person occupying this function after 1990 (Agerpres, 2015). The National Congress elects the president of PNL thorough a secret ballot. In order to be eligible all the candidates have to be members for at least five years and have to present a resolution project (political actions program) approved and sustained by the support group. The National Congress is the supreme leading structure which defines the general policy of the party, decides the official resolution and chooses the presidents of the leading structures of the party. The current President of PNL has been elected in 2014 and for the first time in history, Alina Gorghiu, a female candidate, was elected (Mediafax 2014). Since 1990, PNL has had 8 presidents. The Congress elects the President of UDMR. Every four years the Congress is summoned by the President to prepare for the election of the leadership of the union. The president is elected by the majority of the members of the Congress through a secret ballot. In order to be eligible the candidates have to receive support by at least 1,000 individual Union s members (UDMR, 2015). The President is in charge of representing the union, supervising the activity of the parliamentary group, proposing and recalling the Executive President who is responsible for the entire activity of the Executive Committee. The current President of UDMR is Kelemen Hunor who has been leading the union since 2011. Since its foundation, the Union has had three presidents, Marko Bela being the most long-lasting president (8 years from 1993 to 2011) (Agerpres 2015). 17

The National Conference s members elect the UNPR s president, through a secret ballot, for a four years term. The President represents the party, coordinates the women and youth organizations, leads the National Executive Committee and communicates with the nongovernmental organizations (UNPR, 2015). Currently, the party is led by Gabriel Oprea who was preceded by Marian Sarbu. The analyzed parties follow the same leadership selection procedures. Congress elects party presidents through a secret ballot using the majority principle. There is one exception: PSD. The political party organized its first direct elections of the party s president in 2015. The Romanian parties leadership selection process is characterized by limited variation (Gherghina et al. 2011), a statement that holds true in 2015. The lack of variation contradicts a two decades trend in political parties across the world to increase the level of intra-party democratization (Kenig 2008). Conclusions Although political parties formally grant a large degree of autonomy to lower level of the organization, the reality is that parties are de facto centralized. Despite the recent changes introduced by PSD such as the introduction of membership ballots, the de facto power is concentrated in the hands of the party leaders as it can be seen by the candidate selection process. The local party leaders selection process is decentralized in stark contrast with the selection of candidates for national public office. Party leaders have strong influence on the composition of candidates lists. Although all political parties have adopted a classic mass party style of organization in terms of organizational size and the type of membership, the attitudes towards the role of party members reflect the insignificance of participatory responsibilities and loose connection with society in general. This is evident from the low levels of party membership and the weak linkages with organized interests. 18

The list of political parties and electoral alliances and their abbreviations ARD Alianța România Dreaptă, The Just Romania Alliance FSN- Frontul Salvării Naționale, National Salvation Front PC- Partidul Conservator, The Conservative Party PDL- Partidul Democrat Liberal, The Liberal Democratic Party PNL Partidul Național Liberal, National Liberal Party PP-DD Partidul Poporului- Dan Diaconescu, People s Party-Dan Diaconescu PSD Partidul Social Democrat, Social Democratic Party UDMR Uniunea Democrată Maghiară din România, The Hungarian Democratic Union from Romania UNPR Uniunea Națională pentru Progresul României, The National Union for the Progress of Romania USL Uniunea Social Liberală, Social Liberal Union The list of the organizations of national minorities other than the Hungarian one represented in Parliament FDGR Forumul Democrat al Germanilor din România, The Democratic Forum of Germans from Romania UBB-R Uniunea Bulgară din Banat România, The Bulgarian Union from Banat Romania DZSCR- Uniunea Democratică a slovacilor și cehilor din România, The Democratic Union of Slovaks and Czechs from Romania U-Polonezi Uniunea Polonezilor din România, The Union of Poles from Romania ZHR-UCR Uniunea Croaților din România, The Union of Croatian from Romania CRLR Comunitatea Rușilor Lipoveni din România, The Community of Lipova Russians from Romania UDTTMR - Uniunea Democrată a Tătarilor Turco-Musulmani din România, The Democratic Union of the Turkish-Muslim Tatars from Romania PRPE - Asociația Partida Romilor Pro-Europa, Pro-Europe Rroma Party Association USR- Uniunea Sârbilor din România, The Union of Serbs from Romania UUR - Uniunea Ucrainenilor din România, The Union of Ukrainians from Romania 19

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