Sfera Politicii (Dec 2019)
Greater Romania Votes: The 1919 Parliamentary Elections on the „Grassroots”
Abstract
The parliamentary elections in November 1919 were not only the first ones held in Romania after the end of World War I, but also the first ones which replaced census suffrage with universal male suffrage, and the single general elections from Romanian independence to the end of the interwar period which were not won by the party in government. It was also a complex process, organised according to three different laws and voting systems in the various historical provinces which formed Greater Romania. The volume coordinated by Bogdan Murgescu and Andrei Florin Sora analyses both the national dynamic of voter activism and empowerment, and the regional diversity of the electoral process. It contains case studies about the elections in 31 counties from all historical provinces, and provides thus a unique insight into the complexities of the Romanian society and into the way a majority of the Romanian citizen voted for change in 1919, only to see their aspirations being thwarted by the established political elites of the Old Kingdom.
