International Financial Institutions and the Romanian Transition: Remarks on a Bibliographical Investigation

This paper investigates the perceived influence of international financial institutions on the Romanian transition. Although the interventions of these institutions in Romania have frequently been subject to public scrutiny, to the author's knowledge the opinions and experiences of local specialists and decision makers have been scarcely investigated in a structured manner. The context of the study lies in the deep transformations of the Romanian economical and political environment in the 1990s, which have been significantly shaped by external influences. The study aims to provide a systematization of the main perspectives on the interaction between the international institutions and Romanian decision makers during this period. Therefore, the main method of study is represented by a critical review of the economic and political literature related to the Romanian transition. The literature available on the subject shows a variety of approaches and levels of analysis. As a consequence, the review is structured based on the personal positioning of the authors (decision makers, academics, foreign observers) and the way they position themselves regarding the research topic (critics, supporters, neutral observers). The paper closes with several observations regarding the main viewpoints on the subject, indicating the determined directions for the next stages of research.