omania is a Parliamentary Republic and its Constitution was approved by popular vote on December 8, 1991. 

Formerly a Communist one-party system, Romania became a multiple-party democracy after the December 1989 events. In the huge popular enthusiasm that followed, almost 200 political parties emerged. Most of them failed to gain enough support to enter the parliament in the 1992 and 1996 elections. 

Among the parties that gained large public support are the PNTCD and PNL. They are successors of the "traditional" parties that led the country through the period considered to be the brightest in the modern history of Romania - between the two World Wars. 

he most important parties, which are forming the present Romanian Parliament, are:  the Democratic Convention (CDR) which is a group of 13 parties, the Social Democratic Party (PSDR), the Democratic Party (PD), the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Romanian National Unity Party (PUNR), the Socialist Labor Party (PSM), the Agrarian Democratic Party of Romania (PDAR), Romania Mare Party (PRM), the Civic Alliance Party (PAC).  . 

The two-chamber Parliament is elected by universal vote for a 4-year term. Last elections were held in the fall of 2000.