The Romanian Constitution and Civic Engagement

Abstract

Abstract The article discusses civic engagement in Romanian constitutionalism. First, I briefly discuss theoretical dimensions of the relation between citizens and constitutional change. Second, the Romanian Constitution will be analyzed in terms of formal constitutional instruments of civic participation. Third, civic engagement in constitution-making and constitutional reform since 1991 will be studied. I will conclude that in the early years of Romanian democratic constitutionalism, citizens’ formal possibilities and actual capacities for engagement in constitutional politics have been severely limited. Civic participation has, however, become more promising and prominent in the 2003 and 2013 reform processes. The Romanian dual experience with the Forum Constituţional ought to be studied as part of a larger wave of participatory constitutional reform in Europe, which also helps to bring out a more general problem of such reform, ie, the lack of formal institutionalization of civic participation.