The Issue of the Country's Administrative-Territorial Organization after the Great Union of 1918 as Reflected in the Preliminary Drafts of the 1923 Constitution

In this article, the author analyzes the provisions of the preliminary drafts of the 1923 Constitution regarding the administrative unification of the country after the historical Romanian provinces were annexed to the Old Kingdom. The completion of the state unity through its territorial unification in 1918 required, among other things, the problem of the organization of power structures at the local level. The historic Romanian provinces that decided to unite unconditionally and forever with the Romanian Kingdom by virtue of their nationhood and based on the principle of national and territorial self-determination had their own local administrative organization and governing bodies that were different from the local institutional realities of the Romanian state. Finding a rational and efficient solution for the new administrative-territorial division of the national territory and unifying the regulations on local government applicable throughout the country was, in those post-war political, social and economic conditions, a matter of intense public interest and a major objective of reflection not only for the Romanian Parliament and Government, but also for the academic and university world. In fact, the entire Romanian society was gripped by a fever of constitutional reform for a renewed state and, within this, of an administrative-territorial reform. Starting as early as 1919, several draft constitutions were published that also referred to the constitutional and legal renewal of local administration, which is analyzed in detail in this article.