ncil of State is closely tied to the
structure and membership of the Grand National Assembly and functions as
a permanent assembly presidium. The nation's highest administrative
body, the Council of Ministers, is elected by the assembly and
responsible to both the assembly and the Council of State. Although it
is theoretically independent in its judicial decisions, the Supreme
Court is also constitutionally responsible to the assembly.

The entire structure of the government, from national down to local
levels, is organized on a principle of centralized control by which all
lower bodies are subject to the authority and control of the next higher
unit, the ultimate power resting in the central government. The
governmental system consists of nominally representative bodies at
community, town, and county levels, which are hierarchically
subordinated to the authority of the central government. Throughout the
entire system the predominant influence of the party is evident, the key
positions at each level being held by party members.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM

Constitutional Development

Since coming under full communist control in December 1947, Romania has
had three constitutions. The first, designating the country a "People's
Republic," was adopted by the Grand National Assembly in April 1948,
just four weeks after the assembly had been reorganized under new
communist leadership. The second, officially adopted in September 1952,
had first been made public the preceding July after Gheorghe
Gheorghiu-Dej had assumed the post of prime minister in addition to his
position as head of the party. A third constitution, incorporating the
elements of Romania's changed social and ideological position, entered
into force on August 20, 1965.

In many ways similar to the initial constitutions of the other
Soviet-dominated states of Eastern Europe, the 1948 Constitution was
designed to mark Romania's entry into the first stage of the transition
from capitalism to socialism. As a people's democracy, state power was
said to derive from the people as expressed through the Grand National
Assembly, nominally, the supreme organ of state power. A nineteen-member
Presidium was elected by and from the membership of the assembly to
provide continuity of legislative authority when the assembly itself was
not in session. The highest executive and administrative organ was the
Council of Ministers, which functioned under the direction of the p