Daniel N. Nelson is currently associate professor of political science at the University of Kentucky. He has done field research in both Romania and Poland and has written extensively on Romania and communist politics.

• Preface -- The Setting of Romanian Communism -- Romania's Development as a Communist State -- Romania's Past as Challenge for the Future: A Developmental Approach to Interwar Politics -- Leaders and Citizens in Romanian Politics -- Family, Farm, and Factory: Rural Workers in Contemporary Romania -- Idol or Leader? The Origins and Future of the Ceausescu Cult -- Political Socialization in Romania: Prospects and Performance -- Workers in a Workers' State -- Foreign and Economic Policies -- Romanian Military Policy in the 1980s -- Romanian Foreign Policy in the 1980s -- Perspectives on Romania's Economic Development in the 1980s -- Conclusion: Development, Communism, and Balkan Tradition