l and district
levels, but a territorial-administrative reorganization voted by the
Grand National Assembly in 1968 replaced the existing sixteen regions
and 150 intermediate districts with a system of thirty-nine counties and
forty-four independent municipal administrations. The expressed purpose
of the change was the provision of more efficient administration.

In addition to the establishment of county and municipal people's
councils, local councils were also set up in 142 smaller towns, and
communal councils were formed in rural areas. A number of the smaller
communes were combined in order to give them a larger population base.
Boundaries of each of the new _judete_ were drawn to include about fifty
communes consisting of some 4,000 to 5,000 persons.

Along with the territorial reorganization, the decision was also made to
combine party and government functions of the _judet_ level so that the
same person acted both as party committee first secretary and people's
council chairman. In explaining this fusion of party and state
authority, Ceausescu stated that there were many instances in which
offices in both the party and the government dealt with the same areas
of interest, a practice that resulted in inefficiency and the
unnecessary duplication of party and state machinery. He asserted that
the consolidation of these administrative positions would serve to
eliminate this overlapping. At the same time, Ceausescu declared that,
inasmuch as the government was responsible for the implementation of the
PCR's economic decisions, there was no justification for the continued
existence of the numerous economic sections of the party Central
Committee and that future economic policy would be implemented within
the structure of the government (see ch. 9).

According to the Constitution and the 1968 Grand National Assembly's Law
on the Organization and Operation of People's Councils, the people's
councils are responsible for the implementation of central government
decisions and the economic, social, and cultural administration of their
particular jurisdictions. Deputies to the people's councils are elected
to four-year terms--except for the communes where the term is two
years--from single-member constituencies of equal population. Based on
population, the _judet_ people's councils may have a maximum of 231, or
a minimum of 141, deputies. The membership of the Bucharest People's
Council is fixed at 369, and there are 151 de