Giordano Altarozzi
în vol. Trasee și convergențe culturale și naționale în România Mare. Provincii, identități, destine, coord. Maria Tătar-Dan, Nicolae Enciu, Corina Teodor, Giordano Altarozzi, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Mega, 2026, ISBN: 978-630-372-121-7, pp. 15-26.

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Centralization and Decentralization in Greater Romania: The Transylvanian Press Debate on the Administrative Unification Law of 1925

The present article examines the political and intellectual debate surrounding the Administrative Unification Law of 13 June 1925, one of the most controversial reforms in interwar Romania. Following the creation of Greater Romania after the First World War, the integration of provinces shaped by different administrative traditions – including the Hungarian, Austrian, Russian, and Old Kingdom systems – posed a fundamental challenge to state-building. Although the Constitution of 1923 formally endorsed the principle of administrative decentralization, its implementation became the subject of intense political conflict between the central government, dominated by the National Liberal Party, and the Romanian National Party representing the Transylvanian political elite. Drawing primarily on contemporary Transylvanian newspapers, particularly “Patria” and “Gazeta Transilvaniei”, this study analyses the public discourse generated by the government’s centralizing reform. It argues that opposition to the 1925 law extended beyond institutional or technical concerns, reflecting a broader confrontation between two competing conceptions of the Romanian nation-state.

Keywords: Greater Romania; decentralization; Transylvania; state-building; administrative reform

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