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HOW MANY CHANGES ARE TOO MANY? ELECTORAL REFORMS IN ROMANIA BETWEEN 1990 AND 2015: THE CAROUSEL NEVER STOPS TURNING
Abstract
The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the electoral reforms that have been performed in Romania in the last 25 years, in order to identify their effects, which have been, in some cases, harmful to the already difficult process of transition to democracy. We base our working hypothesis on the assumption that the large number of these reforms, as well as, in some cases, their ambiguity and/or complexity, represented important criteria which led to a constant decrease in the population's voting participation and in the diminished trust Romanians have in the political class. Although the most drastic changes occurred with the new electoral law from 2008, with major effects on both the manner of electing representatives and the manner of translating votes into parliamentary seats, many of the electoral laws from before also produced negative effects regarding the electoral disproportionality. Between 1992 and 2004, the electoral system was one of proportional representation, but it produced some very strong majoritarian effects. This is what political scientist Cristian Preda called the „perverse effect” of the Romanian electoral system. It is noteworthy in this regard that in the 2000 – 2004 timeframe, the Romanian political class discussed the need to reform the electoral system removing the proportional representation and replacing it with a single-member majority voting system. The main motivation for this proposal was that the system of proportional representation generated Parliament fragmentation and by using closed lists candidates that were not accepted by the central organizations of the parties could not run for office. The new electoral law, from 2008, brought the most changes and produced some of the most serious debates, not only within the political class, but also – and especially – within civil society and determined, among others, the increased rate of absenteeism in the parliamentary elections of 2008 and 2012. Besides other factors, the complexity and sometimes the contradictions of the Romanian electoral laws have determined the population to disbelief the possibility of a real change and to take refuge in absenteeism, as a way of protest over the negative effects of the many electoral reforms that they have undertaken in the last 25 years.
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