Figure 9. Organization of the Romanian Communist Party, 1972.
After its election by the party congress, the Central Committee in turn elects, from among its own number, the members of the leading party bodies: the Standing Presidium, the Executive Committee, and the Secretariat. The election is largely a formality, however, for in practice the Standing Presidium is the primary center of political power and is a self-perpetuating body. Any change in its membership or in that of the Secretariat is generated from within rather than through a democratic decision of the Central Committee. As general secretary of the party, Ceausescu heads both the Standing Presidium and the Secretariat and chairs the Executive Committee.
To accomplish its administrative tasks the Central Committee is provided with an extensive bureaucratic structure that in many instances parallels the organization of the government ministries. A chancellery office, headed by a chief and three deputies, coordinates the committee's overall administrative activities. Party work is organized under three directorates, each headed by a supervisory secretary, and a number of administrative sections and functional commissions. The directorates, designated as international affairs and propaganda, party organization, and press and cultural affairs, supervise and direct the work of the administrative sections. Not all of these sections are listed in the party statutes or by the party press. A partial listing includes sections for the economy, local administration, propaganda, press, international affairs, party organs and personnel, national minorities, and state security.
In addition to the directorates and administrative sections there were, in 1970, eight formally established commissions directly tied to the Central Committee. These were listed as the commissions for agriculture and forestry; economic problems; ideological and cultural-educational problems; international relations; organizational problems and internal party activity; training of cadres, education, and science; development of the social and state system; and social questions, public health, and living standards.
Two party training institutions, the Stefan Gheorghiu Academy of Social-Political Education and the Training of Leading Cadres and the Institute of Historical and Social-Political Studies, operate under the direct supervision of the Central Committee. Located in Bucharest, both of these institutions are designed to train and indoctrinate key bureaucratic personnel. The Central Committee also maintains a museum of party history in Bucharest.
In charge of all of the political machinery of the PCR, the Standing Presidium of the Central Committee is the party's center for decisionmaking and policy control and, as such, is the most powerful body in the country. There were, at the beginning of 1972, four party leaders who held positions concurrently on the Standing Presidium, the Executive Committee, and the Secretariat: Ceausescu, Manea Manescu, Paul Niculescu-Mizil, and Gheorghe Pana. Political observers considered these men to be the most powerful in the party and, hence, the nation. All of the nine members of the Standing Presidium are also members of the Executive Committee.
Little information is available on the responsibilities given the Executive Committee, although some observers have described it as providing an administrative link between the Standing Presidium and the Central Committee. In practice it has functioned as a rump Central Committee when the latter is not in session. The Secretariat serves as the continuing administrative unit of the party. It supervises the execution of policies decided upon by the Standing Presidium. Three members of the Secretariat serve as the supervising secretaries of the major directorates of the Central Committee.
Two other important party organs function under the supervision of the Standing Presidium and the Secretariat: the Central Auditing Commission and the Central Collegium, formerly known as the Party Control Commission. Consisting of forty-five members (none of whom may belong to the Central Committee), the Central Auditing Commission is empowered to exercise general control over party financial affairs and examine the management of finances by the various party organs. The nine-member Central Collegium deals with matters of party discipline and serves as a type of appeals court for penalties imposed on members by county or local party committees.
An interlocking of authority and functions at the highest level of the party and state is evidenced in the frequency with which the senior party officials also hold important government posts. All of the members of the Standing Presidium, the Executive Committee, and the Secretariat are also deputies to the Grand National Assembly, and most of them hold other prominent government positions in the Council of State, the Defense Council, or the Council of Ministers.
The party statutes describe the local cell, the basic party unit, as the foundation of the party. Cells exist in factories, offices, cooperatives, military and police units, social and cultural organizations, and residential areas. Some of these cell groups consist of as few as three members, whereas those in the larger enterprises may have as many as 300 members. In 1969 there were an estimated 69,000 of these local party units.