ABSTRACT
The land reform helped by a new constitution providing for universal male suffrage, did succeed in temporarily pacifying the peasants. The new political system was a parliamentary democracy in form, but— in contrast to parliaments in Western Europe, where governments were created by the legislatures— the Romanian parliament was created by the government. In reality, Marshal Ion Antonescu instituted a military dictatorship, put down an attempted coup by the Romanian fascist Iron Guard, and ruled Romania as an ally of Germany until 1944. With the powerful Soviet army poised at Romania's eastern frontier, the king took control, arresting Antonescu in August 1944 and changing sides in the war, but this rule was short, as he was forced into exile by the communists in 1947. Romanians compared the food and energy shortages of the 1980s with those they had suffered during World War II, and many privately blamed Ceausescu.
