Virgil Madgearu

Virgil Madgearu
Born	(1887-12-14)December 14, 1887 Galați,Kingdom of Romania
Died	November 27, 1940(1940-11-27)(aged 52) Snagov,Ilfov County,Kingdom of Romania
Cause of death	Gunshot wounds
Occupation(s)	Academic, politician
Spouse	Ecaterina Madgearu
Academic background
Alma mater	Leipzig University
Thesis	Zur industriellen Entwicklung Rumäniens: die voratufen des Fabriksystems in der Walachei(1911)
Doctoral advisor	Karl Bücher
Academic work
Discipline	Economics
Institutions	Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies
Influenced
Minister of Industry and Commerce
In office 10 November 1928 – 14 November 1929
Prime Minister	Iuliu Maniu
Preceded by	Ludovic Mrazek
Succeeded by	Aurel Vlad
In office 11 August 1932 – 19 October 1932
Prime Minister	Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
Preceded by	Ion Lugoșianu
Succeeded by	Ion Lugoșianu
Minister of Finance
In office 26 October 1929 – 6 June 1930
Prime Minister	Iuliu Maniu
Preceded by	Iuliu Maniu
Succeeded by	Ion Răducanu
In office 20 October 1932 – 13 November 1933
Prime Minister	Iuliu Maniu Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
Preceded by	Gheorghe Mironescu
Succeeded by	Dinu Brătianu
Minister of Agriculture and Property
In office 10 October 1930 – 17 April 1931
Prime Minister	Gheorghe Mironescu
Preceded by	Ion Mihalache
Succeeded by	Gheorghe Ionescu-Sisești
Personal details
Political party	Peasants' Party National Peasants' Party

Virgil Traian N. Madgearu(Romanian pronunciation:[virˈd͡ʒilmaˈd͡ʒe̯aru];December 14, 1887 – November 27, 1940) was aRomanianeconomist,sociologist,andleft-wingpolitician, prominent member and main theorist of thePeasants' Partyand of its successor, theNational Peasants' Party(PNȚ). He had an important activity as an essayist and journalist, being for long a member on the editorial board for the influentialViața Românească.

Madgearu was a prominent opponent of theNational Liberal Partyfor much of his life, developing an original theory that challenged both Liberal tenets andMarxian economics,proposing measures to enhance the political and economic roles of Romanian peasants. In his later years, he was involved inanti-fascistcauses, and was one of several politicians to be assassinated by theIron Guard.

Biography

Born inGalațito anArmenian-Romanianfamily, he attended the city'sVasile Alecsandri High School,graduating in 1907. He then studied economics atLeipzig University,where he was influenced byKarl Lamprecht,Wilhelm Wundt,andKarl Bücher.After graduating in December 1910, he spent a year inLondon,where he attended university courses for two semesters and trained at a bank. In 1911, he was awarded adoctorateinLeipzig;his thesis, written under the direction of Bücher,was titledZur industriellen Entwicklung Rumäniens: die voratufen des Fabriksystems in der Walachei( "On the industrial development of Romania: the forerunners of the factory system in Wallachia" ).

After being employed by an insurance company, Madgearu was named in 1916 professor at theAcademy for High Commercial and Industrial StudiesinBucharest,and held the position until his death. WithDimitrie Gusti,he founded the Romanian Social Institute, which aided sociologists in first-hand investigation work.

As one of the leaders in theparliamentaryopposition to theAlexandru Averescugovernment, he was at the center of a scandal in July 1921: during a prolonged debate, he was addressed an insult by thePeople's PartypoliticianConstantin Argetoianu;promptly, theNational Liberal Party(PNL) leaderIon G. Ducaexpressed his sympathy, and helped weaken political support for Averescu (the cabinet was to fall in autumn of that year).Nevertheless, Madgearu's rejection of PNL policies and theIon I. C. Brătianugovernment led him to join, in 1923,Liga Drepturilor Omului(the League for Human Rights), reuniting a diverse group of leftist activists such asConstantin Rădulescu-Motru,Constantin Mille,Nicolae L. Lupu,Constantin Costa-Foru,Constantin Titel Petrescu,Dem I. Dobrescu,Victor Eftimiu,Radu D. Rosetti,andGrigore Iunian;it was active until 1928.

Official visit of Virgil Madgearu in Warsaw, Poland (August 1929). Virgil Madgearu (right),Cesar Popescu(left),Witold Czapski(middle).

He held several governmental positions in theIuliu Maniu,Gheorghe Mironescu,andAlexandru Vaida-VoevodPNȚ cabinets: he was Minister for Industry and Trade (1928–1929; June–October 1930; August–October 1932),Finance Minister(1929–1930; 1932–1933), and Minister for Agriculture and Royal Domains in 1931. He also represented Romania at theLeague of Nationsconferences on economy (in the context of theGreat Depression), and was secretary of the PNȚ in 1926, as well as its leader forIlfov County.

Madgearu was initially supportive ofKingCarol II,whom his party had helped bring to power, and remained sympathetic despite the confrontation between the monarch and the PNȚ leader Maniu.According to the ironic account given byPetre Pandrea,the connection was tested by intrigue, after the writersSergiu DanandIon Vineaallegedly stole a text by Madgearu (which was supposed to be published inDreptatea), forged it by adding statements critical of Carol's policies, and sold it to Madgearu's main adversary inside the party,Mihail Manoilescu(Carol himself dismissed the letter as a fake, contributing to the ultimate PNȚ inner-conflict that caused Manoilescu to leave the group).

After Carol established his personal dictatorship, he continued to side with the PNȚ, which was active in semi-clandestinity. According to the PNȚ activistIoan Hudiță,Madgearu, withIon MihalacheandMihai Popovici,continued to support the king, and, after 1938, considered joining theNational Renaissance Front.

Death

An adversary of thefascistIron Guard,he staunchly opposed its rise and theNational Legionary Stateestablished in September 1940. Later in that year, after the remains ofCorneliu Zelea Codreanuwere discovered atJilava Prison(and the conclusion was drawn that he had been murdered on the orders of King Carol), Madgearu andNicolae Iorgawere among the victims of a wave of assassinations carried out in reprisal. Hours after theJilava Massacre,Madgearu was attacked in his Bucharest house, kidnapped, and taken to theSnagovforest, where he was shotby five members of the Iron Guard, who discharged their pistols in bursts into his back.

Aftermath

During the following decades, his killing remained a debated topic. It became apparent thatHoria Sima(Codreanu's successor) was not able to justify it using the predilect excuse, as a direct answer to previous repressive measures. Unlike Iorga, who had assisted in Codreanu's arrest, Madgearu had not been responsible for any violent actions, and was probably targeted only for having served under Carol.Sima later argued that the series of murders had no relevant impact on public opinion (and even that it had led to an increase in his party's appeal).However, condemnation of the actions was widespread, and the resulting negative image probably contributed in rallying political forces behind traditional authorities, and the eventualousting of the Guardby theIon Antonescu-ledRomanian Army(January 1941;see alsoRomania during World War II).The prosecutors of the Ilfov Court established that the samedeath squadthat killed Madgearu also assassinated Iorga inStrejnic;the perpetrators were identified as Traian Boeru, Ion Tucan, Ștefan I. Cojocaru, Tudor Duca, and Ștefan Iacobută.The death squad leader, Boeru, would later be recruited by the foreign intelligence arm of theSecuritate,with the mission of spying on the legionary groups that had taken refuge in the West.Madgearu's widow, Ecaterina, would be arrested in 1952 for having belonged to the PNȚ; sentenced to 5 years of detention, she was sent toDumbrăveni Prison,and was liberated in 1954.

Madgearu's leftist views were treasured in retrospect byNicolae Ceaușescu'scommunist regime,with itsethnocentricfocus on regaining "progressive"precedents that were not actuallycommunist(alongside Madgearu, several otherLiga Drepturilor Omuluimembers, and Iorga, the list also includedNicolae Titulescu,Traian Bratu,Grigore Filipescu,andMitiță Constantinescu).

Posthumously, in 1990, theRomanian Academyelected him a member. High schools in Bucharest,Ploiești,Roșiorii de Vede,andTârgu Jiuare named after him. Streets in Bucharest,Mediaș,andTimișoaraalso bear his name.

Theory

Romanian specificity

Inspired byConstantin StereandPoporanism,Madgearu developed a theory arguing for the preservation of a "peasant economy" and the creation of a "peasant state", prioritizing the preservation of specificity and small rural holdings over large-scaleindustrialization(the ideal was partly mirrored by the cultural models ofConstantin Rădulescu-Motru).Borrowing from the traditional criticism ofmodernizationpolicies as applied in Romania (Junimea's early rejection of "forms without substance" — asskepticismtoward direct borrowings ofWesterncultural, political, and economic models — as well asConstantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea'ssocialistperspective on the consequences the process had in the rural sphere — acapitalist"neo-serfdom").Building on the ideas ofAlexander Chayanov,he argued thatEastern Europein its entirety had evaded Western developments, and was home to distinct economic and social patterns.

In 1919, upon the creation of the Peasants' Party, Madgearu wrote:

"If the methods of various socialist parties differ, if the majority of the socialist world does not believe in the means ofRussian Marxism,their common goal is the very same.

If, in a state where the majority of the population is comprised of industrialproletarians,the tendency of socialism to conquer political power may be viewed as a natural and justified development, in a state where the proletariat is a minority such efforts cannot ever correspond with the natural evolution of things.

Nevertheless, theRussian exampleshows that the possibility for adictatorship of the proletariat,even in a country where [the proletariat] is manifestly numerically inferior, is not excluded if the largest segment of the population is amorphous and politically inert as was the case of the peasantry in theMuscovite Empire[sic].

Within its new borders [that is, those ofGreater Romania], Romania endures as anagrarian-industrial state, in which the rural inhabitants shall form more than three quarters of the population. Thus, what then ought to be more natural and necessary today, after the Russian lesson, than the political rallying of the peasantry, [than] its transformation from an amorphous and politically inert mass into a self-aware organism that is to demand its share of stately power in proportion to its numbers and significance? "

He believed that the development of the country was not to follow strict capitalist guidelines, and foreigncapitalwas needed without neglecting the domestic one. Given that theexportcapacity of the country was very limited, he insisted on developing thedomestic market.As the a labor force with medium qualification was missing in Romania, Madgearu called for the development of a proper training system which was to provide skilled professionals for the industry.

In this context, he, as much as the Peasants' Party leaderIon Mihalache,supportedcooperative farming(with it, he primordially aimed to preserve the small-scale rural holding, which he saw as a viable economic cell for a relative future).Nevertheless, during theGreat Depression,he revised some of his principles, and, like much of his party, advocated a focus on accelerated industrialization — as a means to preserve Romania's independence.

"Community of producers"

Madgearu defined his views on the industrial-agricultural relation in 1922, responding to mounting suspicions that his political faction wassocial class-based (and thus potentiallyrevolutionary):

"If the peasant doctrine admits that the basis of its policies is class-focused, its concept of human society is not class-based and its ideas are less class-based than those of any other party. The other parties label themselves" socially harmonious ", taking pride in themselves as national, fusing in their concerns the interests of all citizens. The peasant doctrine knows that they are, in reality, class-based parties, and, if it opposes them, it is precisely because of a national necessity, in order to ensure the normal social development of the people.

[...] The future society can only be a community of producers of manual and intellectual services, in which the labour of the one satisfying a human need, from bread production to poetry, shall be the only warrant for existence.

The economic and political doctrine of "socially harmonious" parties is domination of capital over labour. On the contrary, the peasant doctrine sees labour as dominating capital. The peasant should achieve a self-sufficient economic existence, and the industrial labourer should become an active collaborator in production, in cooperation with the intellectual labourer and the representatives of organized consumers. "

His view on the role of peasant doctrine remained present in the National Peasants' Party program, as illustrated inIuliu Maniu's 1926 speech on the group's ideology:

"If the National Peasants' Party on one hand relies on all the working and producing classes and aims to justly defend all these classes' economic and social interests, then, on the other, it cannot fail to note that the immense majority of the nation is formed by the peasant category."

Madgearu and Romanian Liberalism

Madgearu further contrasted his party's views with established politics, criticizing the policies of theNational Liberals,who had ruled over Romania in previous decades:

"[...] in political rallying, peasant doctrine does not approve of the financialoligarchy's political domination, and strives to promote a trulydemocraticgovernment, based on the freely-expressed will of popular masses, whose political awareness it seeks to awaken. "

He expanded on this particular ideal in a 1924 article forAurora:

"[If the Peasants' Party is to be victorious in elections] the shape of things would be changed. TheNational Bankwould no longer be the economic fortress of the Liberal oligarchy.Trustswould no longer enslave and exploit the state. Their selfish and venal leaders would no longer be enthroned in overseeing positions over the country's destinies.Civil libertiesnowadays suffocated and stolencivil rightswould be fully restored, and theconstitutional-parliamentaryregime would become a reality, benefiting the development of popular masses as well as civilization. "

Madgearu notably defended the vision ofConstantin Dobrogeanu-Ghereain front of criticism from the maverick LiberalŞtefan Zeletin,who had written a comprehensive study of the Romanianbourgeoisie,overtly sympathetic towardseconomic liberalism.

Industrial evolution and state intervention

Carrying out a polemic withMarxism(while drawing inspiration fromRudolf Hilferding'sAustromarxistviews on economic history),Madgearu expanded on his belief that the new doctrine was universally acceptable and organic in the development of countries such as Romania:

"It could be objected, however, that peasant doctrine is hostile toward industry. It has been indicated that there is no disagreement between the development of an autonomous class of peasants and major industries, and that, quite the contrary, a mutual fulfillment was discovered between the development of peasant agriculture and major industrial enterprises...

In this sense, there is no question of agricultural policies versus industrial policies, of permanent and determined disagreement. Not even the doctrine ofPoporanismdenied the necessity of industrialization, but rather only the possibility of establishing a capitalist industry inunderdevelopedagrarian environments. It is probable that the process of transformation of past agrarian states into industrial ones, on the basis ofprivate propertyand freecompetition,will not be identically reproduced in present-day agrarian states. Even thesocial-democratKautskystated that, in social transformation, there is no way of conceiving that an agricultural country should cover the same length and direction of the path taken by present-day industrial states. "

In order to advance his proposed economic goals, Madgearu did however support a degree ofstate planningover the mixture ofinterventionismandlaissez-faireadvocated by the National Liberals:

"Without treasuring beyond measure the absolute value of planning in organizing the national economy, experience has shown the superiority of plan-based state intervention over that left to chance [...].

The multiple and varied interventions of the state in agriculture and industry, lacking any directive and continuity, are responsible for [the weakening of national economy].

[...] An economic plan does not at all imply the suppression or even a narrowing ofprivate initiativein the economic life. An economic plan means containing and applying discipline to individual economic forces while maintaining the role of private initiative. An economic plan means coordinating the efforts of individual economic organizations and empowering them, through association and the systematic contribution of the state as the true representative of the national community. "

Selected works

• Zur industriellen Entwicklung Rumäniens( "On the economic evolution of Romania", 1911)
• Țărănismul( "Peasantism", 1921)
• Doctrina țărănistă( "Peasant doctrine", 1923)
• Dictatură economică sau democrație economică?( "Economic dictatorship or economic democracy?", 1925)
• Romania's new economic policy(in English in its original version, 1930)
• Notre collaboration technique avec la Société des Nations( "Our technical collaboration with the League of Nations", 1933)
• Agrarianism, capitalism, imperialism(1936)
• La politique extérieure de la Roumanie 1927-1938( "Romania's external policies 1927-1938", 1939)
• Evoluția economiei românești după primul război mondial( "The development of Romanian economy afterWorld War I",1940)

References

• Lucian Boia,History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness,Central European University Press,2001
• Keith Hitchins,România, 1866-1947,Humanitas,Bucharest, 1998 (translation of the English-language editionRumania, 1866-1947,Oxford University Press,USA, 1994)
• (in Romanian)Ioan Hudiță,"Pagini de jurnal" ( "Diary Pages" ),inMagazin Istoric
• Joseph L. Love,Theorizing underdevelopment: Latin America and Romania, 1860-1950
• Vasile Niculae, Ion Ilincioiu, Stelian Neagoe,Doctrina țărănistă în România. Antologie de texte( "Peasant doctrine in Romania. Collected Texts" ), Editura Noua Alternativă, Social Theory Institute of theRomanian Academy,Bucharest,1994
• (in Romanian)Petre Pandrea,"Carol II-Madgearu-Manoilescu",inMagazin Istoric,July 2001
• (in Romanian)Ioan Scurtu,"Prăbușirea unui mit" ( "The Crumbling of a Myth" ),inMagazin Istoric
• (in Romanian)Henri H. Stahl,Gânditori și curente de istorie socială românească( "Thinkers and Trends in Romanian Social History" ) Cap. X:Gânditori dintre cele două războaie mondiale( "Thinkers in the Period between the Two World Wars" )
• Francisco Veiga,Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919-1941: Mistica ultranaționalismului( "History of the Iron Guard, 1919-1941: The Mistique of Ultra-Nationalism" ), Bucharest,Humanitas,1993