The Role of Territorial Cohesion and Administrative Organization in Regional Sustainability: The Case of Romania

Recent studies have indicated that territorial cohesion represents a fundamental variable for the viable functioning of a state. Territorial cohesion is the result of the interaction between two categories of forces: centripetal, which tends to maintain its cohesion, and centrifugal, which tends to break it up. These forces are the combined result of several categories of factors (ethnic, historical and geopolitical, demographic, and social–economic) which characterize each state and territory. The degree of accessibility is a composite indicator that accumulates the influence of natural and economic–social factors through the degree of development of the communications infrastructure on territorial cohesion. Accessibility is of crucial importance, especially in the case of relatively ethnically homogeneous states. Our study analyzes these aspects of territorial cohesion and administrative organization in the case of Romania, a state located in a European region of geopolitical interference and instability. By using a methodology on the critical analysis of data, documents, and bibliographic sources in Romania, the results of our study indicate changes in the relations between cities and subordinate human settlements that occurred in the last five decades, as well as the lack of financial viability of many administrative–territorial units. The conclusions of our research propose a broad rethinking of the administrative–territorial organization in this country, based mainly on better functionality and territorial cohesion.