Cristian Preda, Rumanii fericiti. Vot si putere de la 1831 pina in prezent.

• Author: Bulei, Ioan

Apart from his excellent works about the evolution of the Romanian political thinking or about the history of liberalism, Cristian Preda has published so far three books (obviously, also many other studies) which are milestones for the electoral systems in the Romanian political history: "Post-communist Romania and interwar Romania"," Parties and elections in post-communist Romania" and "The regime, parties and political systems in Romania", at Nemira and Meridiane publishing houses. Recently he has published a fourth book, "Contended Romanians. Vote and power from 1831 until today" (Polirom, 2011, 376 p.). A remarkable book featuring an analysis of the relationship of vote and power in the realm of Romanian politics from 1831 until today. An analysis of a historical evolution and reality accomplished by the means of political science.

The idea of undertaking such an analyse was inspired by the great French sociologist and politolog Dogan Mattei, to whom Cristian Preda dedicates this volume. However professor Cristian Preda succeeds accomplishing a very difficult task.

Beacause of the fact, that the history of the Romanian politics does not provide to the researcher specific criteria such as a reliable party system, long-standing electoral fomulas, distinct interest groups, distribution of the executive power, details about the centralized or federal character of the gouvernment and so on. Quoting Cristian Preda himself, in the case of Romania, there are only "short, uneven historical series of coup d'etat, frequent changes of the Constitution, revisions, revolutions or abdications". It means that he can not research medium and long term periods. Throughout the last two centuries, the whole Romanian society has been looking to the West trying various formulas to copy it. To define such a movement, Cristian Preda does not start from Arend Lijphart's criteria that are to be found in his volume "Democracy in plural societies". For him there are three main starting points. First point is what he calls the "regulation" of the vote, which means a synchronization of exerciting the vote with its evolution in the West; from...