Petre P. Carp’s “Socialism”

Petre P. Carp’s “socialism”. One of the names by which the conservative Petre P. Carp was called by his political opponents was (among other labels, such as “Germanophile”, backward thinker or authoritarian) that of a promoter of “state socialism”. Positioning himself against the prevailing trend of his time, which supported keeping the state as society’s “night watch”, this political member of the Junimea Club pleaded in favour of protectionism, not one of a revolutionary kind, creator of new realities, but one which would have encouraged the in-depth dissemination of the modernising ideas taken over from the Western world. The intervention of authorities in the economy and in society, Carp said, aimed at creating the national economy (agrarian-industrial-commercial) and at spreading a sense of property among the members of the national community. A strong national economy, included into the scope of world trade, as well as owner and citizen mentalities, consolidated the internal situation of the young national state, with beneficial effects on its international status. As far as Carp is concerned, we could say that this cliché, just as all the others, was created by his political adversaries in order to distort his political actions and thinking, precisely because he was seen as a formidable opponent.