Romania’s Path to Dictatorship. The Failure of Transylvanian Strife for Autonomy and the Enforcement of Central Power. 1918-1940

This research aims to investigate Romania’s development from the “Great Unification” of 1918/1920 to the end of the royal dictatorship of Carol II in 1940 from a regional perspective. The working hypothesis is that dysfunctional statehood - as a result of radical centralization and suppression of regional interests - was a central precondition for the royal dictatorship which was established in 1938. Analysis is carried out on several levels: On one hand the development from the “Great Unification” to the failure of the royal dictatorship is being depicted from a discourse perspective on the basis of regional periodicals. On the other hand political practices of the central power and the reaction of the “Transylvanian periphery” are analysed through administrative documents.