A community no longer in transition. The case of the organization of Romanian parties abroad

According to the classic definition of a party as a group of communities, an assembly of small groups scattered across the country linked by coordinating institutions, the process of the deterritorialization of citizenship has potential consequences on the territory in which party organizations mobilize popular support. This article aims to analyze the consequences of extending electoral rights to non-resident Romanian citizens in national parties’ organizations. It looks first at the chronological dimension of this process with the aim of identifying when and why Romanian parties started to organize themselves abroad. In parallel, the article aims to unwrap the practices of these party organizations; more specifically, it aims to analyze the range of activities these organizations deploy in the different host countries. Based on a qualitative study, it focuses on four parliamentary parties. The main conclusion is that Romanian parties’ extraterritorial organizations can be considered “the direct result of the 2008 electoral reform,” but that their sphere of activity remains limited to electoral mobilization.