raduation from a higher
education institute, and an age of forty years or younger.

In addition to the broad program of the academy, the PCR also maintains
other ideological training institutions. These include the Institute of
Historical and Social-Political Studies in Bucharest, which functions
under the direct supervision of the Central Committee, and lower level
training programs that operate under the county party committees.

During 1971 the PCR placed increased emphasis on both the political and
general education of all party workers, and the Central Committee
decreed that only those who can keep up to date in their fields of
activity would be promoted. As a followup to the decree, the Central
Committee initiated a series of twenty- to thirty-day training programs
and required some 15,000 persons from party, state, and mass
organizations to attend the sessions. The order included a warning that
those who did not successfully complete the courses would lose their
jobs.

Observers of Romanian politics stated that the decision to require this
additional training of state and party workers stemmed from the fact
that the majority of personnel on both the central and local levels had
been named to their positions on the basis of faithful party activity
rather than their professional qualifications. The stipulation that
those who do not successfully complete the courses would lose their jobs
enables the party to replace those who are not qualified to fill their
positions.

The study programs, designed to include practical work, discussion of
specific problems, and field trips, cover a number of subjects including
"the basic Marxist-Leninist sciences of management and organization,"
automatic data processing, the utilization of electronic calculators,
methods of socioeconomic analysis, and the projection of plans, as well
as a number of special subjects related to the various fields of
activity of the participants. To facilitate the training of larger
numbers, branches of the Stefan Gheorghiu Party Academy's Center for the
Education and Training of Party and Mass Organization Cadres were set up
in Bucharest and in seven counties.

Mass Organizations

The PCR has fostered the development of a large number of mass
organizations that function as its auxiliaries. Comprised of members of
an interest group or a profession whose welfare they purport to serve,
the mass organizations provide channels for the transmission