Impactul cartelizării sistemului de partide din România asupra consolidării sistemului democratic

The aim of this article is to analyze the cartelization of the Romanian party system and its impact on citizen representation and on the consolidation of democracy. Consequently, I analyze the development of the Romanian party systems with emphasis on those electoral rules and regulations that limit open political competition as well as on the system of party finance. I show that electoral rules have gotten progressively harsher and that the system of party finance clearly handicaps new competitors. This holds true in regard to the rules for the formal registering of new political parties. Moreover the cartel has been extremely successful in keeping new competitors out of Parliament.