Romania: Post-Communist Intra-Party Conflicts and Resolutions

Over the past thirty-five years, Romanian political parties were alive and abuzz. Also their history for that period was marked by internal ideological heterogeneity, intra-group disagreements, and quite often by open conflicts. Although hard to learn, intra-party conflict management was a necessity for each party organization as, despite contentious internal affairs, each party elite needed to maintain coherence of the overall organisation’s coherence, stabilise membership and be able to campaign coherently in elections. This article examines the two major Romanian political parties that have been in continuous operation since 1990: The Social Democratic Party (PSD – Partidul Social Democrat) and The National Liberal Party (PNL – Partidul Naţional Liberal). It analyses intra-party conflicts in terms of ideological disputes and competition for power within groups. The conclusions are that despite the turmoil in Bucharest party headquarters, there was a surprising degree of organization stability at the level of each party throughout the period, far greater than ordinarily recognized in the literature or in the op-eds of political pundits. Keywords: Party Elite Conflict, Intra-Group Disagreements, Ideological Differences, Strategic Conflict.