r, were based on occupation rather than
ownership of property. Members of all groups were employees; the only
employer was society as a whole through its organ, the state. The main
basis for the distinction of classes was the difference between manual
labor and intellectual work. This difference was gradually being
eliminated through the continuous upgrading of the prestige of manual
labor.

Most Romanian writing on social strata or differentiation based on
occupation separates society into three classes: workers,
intelligentsia, and peasants. By most definitions, workers are all those
engaged in productive occupations, including both the unskilled laborer
and the highly skilled technician. Intelligentsia are all those engaged
in nonproductive occupations, such as office work or service jobs,
including both the unqualified clerk and the enterprise manager or
university professor. Sometimes, however, the intelligentsia is defined
as all those with a secondary or higher education without regard to
their occupations. Members of agricultural cooperatives are classified
as peasants, whereas employees of state farms are considered workers.
The small number of peasants still working private agricultural holdings
are considered to be a disappearing remnant of the past and, therefore,
are not included in any segment of the socialist society.

In 1969 workers were reported as constituting 40 percent of the
population; intelligentsia, 12.3 percent; and peasants, 47.7 percent.
Comparable statistics for 1960 divided the population into 28.6 percent
worker, 9.5 percent intellectual, and 61.9 percent peasant. Thus, the
peasant class was growing smaller while the worker and intellectual
classes were expanding. A continuation of this trend was forecast for
the 1970s.

Cutting across this division was one based on skill and education. Thus
the unskilled worker, the unskilled peasant, and the unqualified clerk
were all members of the same stratum but of different classes. It was
not clear whether or not a division into strata would continue after
class distinctions were eliminated.

This view of the social structure seems to be more a statement of
ideology than an analysis of the actual structure. On the basis of
material rewards, social prestige, and political power, the highest
stratum is the ruling communist elite, followed in turn by the
intelligentsia--professional, managerial, and administrative personnel
with a higher educatio