Elemente istorice și legislative privind organizarea instituției administrative a prefectului în România

Abstract

The Prefecture and Prefect’s institution have a respectable tradition in our country, and their role in the ensemble of the economical, social and political life is a special one, no matter how it developed its actions throughout history. The Prefecture and Prefect’s institution have been brought in at the middle of the 19th century and it has been organized following the French concept, by the reformative legislation of the ruler Alexandru Ioan Cuza. Since 1864 the County Council and the Prefect were acknowledged as administrative organs of the county playing the role of representatives of the Government in the county. The prefect was nominated through the decision of the ruler. At that time, the prefect was invested with extensive powers of management and politics. Besides the fact that he controlled and guided all other administrative organs of the county, the prefect was chief of the police as well. Regarding the history of names and public positions, the position of prefect dates back in the Roman Antiquity (praefectus), which refers to the governor, the leader, and the administrative chief of a province, city or public service, the commander of the army. Nonetheless, in time the term has suffered some transformations, the Latin term being replaced by Slavic ones, the institution and its administrator remained the same, with the same prerogatives and responsibilities. Brutally interrupted twice by the Hungarian occupation of the Northern- Western Transylvania (1940-1944), and then in 1949-1989, then by taking a tradition of Soviet origin, the evolution of the Romanian administrative institutions recommenced their course in 1990. Obviously, this evolution was marked in a positive way by Romania’s alignment to the European standards in this domain. At the present moment, the Prefect’s Institution and the Prefect have their prerogatives and responsibilities in accordance the status of Romania as a consolidated democracy and as a full member of the European Union.