ABSTRACT
In Romania’s case, its pre-Communist past, the grotesque distortions of the Ceausescu dictatorship, and the character of its transformation politics all demand attention by the comparative analyst. Before 1918, Romania was composed of several areas - the Old Kingdom of Wallachia and Moldova, a region under Russia called Bessarabia, two regions under Hungary called Transylvania and the Banat, and a region under Austria called Bucovina. Communist development strategy in Romania resulted in far less rapid urbanization than it did in neighboring Bulgaria. The forces around Iliescu utilized almost every possible means to confuse the voters and weaken the opposition, but the opposition movement in Romania was itself so ineffective that one must wonder what other factors were involved. During the course of 1994 the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania pressed harder for more radical minority political and civil rights in Romania.
