Democratic control of Romanian intelligence after three decades:

What is it about?

The backbone of building a democratic society has been civilian control of the military. This article briefly describes the norms and institutions of democratic control of the intelligence services in Romania and assesses how the mechanisms of democratic control have worked in practice after almost three decades of reform. We argue that many of the post-1989 reforms have been only superficial implemented and monitored, particularly after Romania joined NATO and the EU. The article concludes that the democratic control of intelligence in Romania is an unfinished business. There are structural shortcomings embedded in the process of democracy consolidation that need to be addressed.

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Why is it important?

The paper analysed how democratic mechanisms worked in practice in different situations, with the immediate goal to shed light on dysfunctionalities regarding democratic control. The basic assumption of democratic control is that the political class has the legitimacy to control the military because the people delegate their powers through free elections. This is an assumption for a consolidated democracy, but in an emerging democracy with very limited civic culture it needs more nuances. What happens when the political class uses money, media and influence to obtain immunity against any legal investigations? Who should control the controllers, and how? This is the crux of challenges for Romanian democracy and it is especially problematic to overcome during a time of a global democratic backlash and the rise of illiberal democracies.