Author: Stancu, Constantin-Raducu
Title: The Political Use of Capital Punishment in Communist Romania
Summary: This thesis aims to reveal the relationship between the death penalty and politics in Romania, throughout the communist period. It examines the legal framework, takes a statistical survey of the actual use, and provides examples in order to illustrate how the state’s attitude towards capital punishment evolved. The use of the death penalty was defined by frequent irregularities and the incoherent policies of a regime that transformed its own perpetuation in one of its main aims. This was especially the case when it was at its weakest, at the very beginning and then close to the end of its existence. The result was the use of the death penalty in a manner that was dictated by immediate political “needs” and reactions to specific events, rather than in relation to a coherent criminal policy, and thus was ultimately less influenced by ideology than one might expect. Used in the Stalinist period both as a direct means to eliminate opponents and by the propaganda for its deterrent effect, as described in the first research chapter, the second research chapter provides evidence about how it slowly evolved to become a more refined political tool limited to the propagandistic use, during the 1980’s. Ultimately, both chapters demonstrate that the legal provisions and their interpretation when put into practice highlight the politicization of the death penalty itself. 68p.
Details: Budapest : CEU, Budapest College, 2012. 68p.
Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 20, 2013 at:
Year: 2012
Country: Romania
URL:
Shelf Number: 128749
Keywords:
Capital Punishment (Romania)Death Penalty |
