Haar on Turnock, _Aspects of Independent Romania’s Economic History with Particular Reference to Transition for EU Accession_

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Published by EH.NET (September 2008)

David Turnock, _Aspects of Independent Romania’s Economic History with 
Particular Reference to Transition for EU Accession_. Aldershot, UK: 
Ashgate, 2007. xxi + 298 pp. $100 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-0-7546-5892-4.

Reviewed for EH.NET by Laura Haar, Manchester Business School, 
University of Manchester.


This book traces Romania’s economic and social transformation over 
almost three centuries and, given its ambitious scope, could have been 
undertaken only by someone with extensive scholarship in Eastern 
European economic history and regional development. For David Turnock, 
Emeritus Professor of Human Geography at the University of Leicester, 
UK, this study is a crowning achievement of over twenty years of 
research and analysis focused primarily upon Romania’s modernization 
efforts. In ten chronologically organized chapters, the reader is 
introduced to the main historical and ideological events that shaped 
Romania’s economic development, starting from the time of the Greek 
Phanariot rulers, through to the aberrations of the Communist regime 
and, last but not least, the 17 years of complicated economic and 
institutional transition reforms that culminated with the country’s 
accession to the European Union.

The first two chapters, spanning across thirty pages, concentrate a 
great deal of historical detail, with emphasis upon the creation of the 
Romanian Kingdom in 1918 and the following period of rapid 
industrialization, suddenly interrupted by the Second World War. The 
third chapter presents the centrally planned economy under Ceausescu’s 
regime and discusses its distorting implications for the country’s 
industrial structure, infrastructure and radical rural/urban changes. 
These first three chapters offer a useful historical perspective to the 
rest of the book which focuses upon the post-communist years. In the 
following two chapters, the author describes at length how successive 
governments tried to restructure the economy, upgrade the country’s 
institutions, deal with ensuing social tensions and attract the much 
needed foreign direct investment to modernize the country’s industrial 
base. Turnock also mentions the role played by international lenders 
such as the IMF, EBRD and World Bank and the non-reimbursable financial 
assistance received by Romania from the EU during the pre-accession 
phase. In chapters 6 and 7 the author undertakes a sector-based analysis 
to illustrate some of the transition-related economic and political 
challenges. Turnock pays attention to the post-communist environmental 
issues as well as to the structural changes observed in the following 
industries: chemicals, building materials, textiles, clothing and 
leather. Turnock offers readers a wealth of statistical data and an 
update on the successes and limitations of the gradual approach to 
privatization pursued by Romanian policy makers. There is some 
information, albeit mainly descriptive in nature, on foreign direct 
investors and their preferred modes of entry. The final three chapters 
deal with agricultural reforms, infrastructure reconfiguration and urban 
planning and development respectively and here, in particular, is 
material to satisfy economic geographers who, no doubt, will appreciate 
both the statistical data and the country/region maps tracing recently 
evolving patterns.

Overall, given its encyclopedic level of detail, the book is a rich 
reference source for researchers with an interest in European transition 
economies. Turnock’s detailed account of Romania’s restructuring process 
(whose drawbacks, setbacks and sector-based examples are detailed over 
seven chapters) is based upon extensive fieldwork, relevant statistics, 
wider readings and personal inferences. The author’s depiction of 
successive post-communist governments and their proposed economic, 
political and social agendas is lucid and informative and is indicative 
of his direct exposure to (and understanding of the) debates covered 
over time in the Romanian economic and political literature and press. 
In fact, the book draws the attention of Western readers to the ideas 
and writings of Romanian academics, otherwise not easily accessible due 
to language barriers. Turnock’s knowledge of local matters and 
appreciation for the local ethos gives his account of Romania’s economic 
reforms a matter-of-fact character and, at times, allows for 
entertaining anecdotal detail (as in his discussion of ethnic issues in 
Romania since 1989).

On the cautionary side, the encyclopedic character of this book may 
overwhelm those readers who favor larger themes and synthesized ideas 
instead of this book’s detailed narrative. Using this work as a 
reference tool, readers can escape the tediousness of the text if they 
know in advance what to search for. It is also unfortunate that the 
rigor displayed by the author in describing the long-term economic 
transformation of Romania was not matched by his publisher. Punctuation 
and other typographical errors are common throughout the text and impede 
its fluency. Despite the above, the book is to be commended for its 
breadth and its useful and updated material on Romania’s economic 
history and human geography.


Laura Haar is Lecturer in International Business at the Manchester 
Business School, University of Manchester, UK.  She is the author of 
“Misreading Liberalisation and Privatisation: The Case of U.S. Energy 
Utilities in Europe,” _Energy Policy_ (2008) and “Industrial 
Restructuring in Romania from a Bilateral Trade Perspective: 
Manufacturing Exports to the EU, 1995-2006.” Email: laura.n.haar at mbs.ac.uk

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