Middle Class in Romania: Fiction or Reality?

• Main Author: Țâra Sergiu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ovidius University Press 2017-01-01
• Series: Ovidius University Annals: Economic Sciences Series
• Subjects: middle class; income; education; welfare; Romania
• Online Access: http://stec.univ-ovidius.ro/html/anale/ENG/2017/Section-III/24.pdf

Social and economic specialists have widely debated on the importance of an intermediarycategory, as solid as possible, between the rich and the very poor, with the role of ensuringsustainable economic development, and the political stability of the respective regime. In Romania’s case, the analysis of the middle class is more focused on our exceptionalism:during the interwar period, the process of transformation of the peasants’ class into a capitalistone unfolds, whereas the communist time signifies annihilation of the interwar middle class and theconstruction of a middle class reaching its deep roots in the industrial development process. After1989, the reconstruction of the middle was made under the sign of political and economichesitations, as well as deep crises in the Romanian society. Therefore, the Romanian middle class is still fragile as far as numbers are concerned and interms of the homogeneity of its constituent groups.