From Peasants to Farmers? Agrarian Reforms and Modernisation in Twentieth Century Romania

The underdevelopment of agriculture was an important subject during the negotiations for Romania’s accession to the European Union. The problem of backwardness in rural areas is, however, far from new and during the twentieth century several agrarian reforms attempted to resolve it. In order to determine the causes of their failure, this volume focuses on a region in the South-Eastern part of Romania, and investigates the activity of three sets of social actors directly involved in agricultural policy: the national elites, who formulated the modernisation programmes, the administration, who implemented them, and the peasants, who had to deal with their effects. The book covers a period of ninety years, from 1917 until 2007, and attempts to determine the long-term results of modernisation policies.

Cornel Micu is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Communication and International Relations at «Danubius» University in Gala?i (Romania). His fields of interest are social and economic history, the transformation of social structures following Europeanisation, urbanisation from a historical perspective and agricultural history. He graduated in history and political sciences from University of Bucharest, Romania and has a PhD from Jena University (Germany). He worked in several projects regarding Romanian history and since 2011 has been a fellow of New Europe College, Bucharest, with a project researching urbanisation in Romania during Communism.

Contents: Constructing an Interpretative Framework: Agrarian Reforms as Answers to the Problem of Backwardness – Conceiving the Agricultural Policy: Party Programs – Legislation and Reforms – From Plans to Actions: the Role of Administrative Structures in Policy Implementation – European Accession and the Development of New Property Patterns. Inhaltsverzeichnis