ip or in that
of the Secretariat is generated from within rather than through a
democratic decision of the Central Committee. As general secretary of
the party, Ceausescu heads both the Standing Presidium and the
Secretariat and chairs the Executive Committee.

To accomplish its administrative tasks the Central Committee is provided
with an extensive bureaucratic structure that in many instances
parallels the organization of the government ministries. A chancellery
office, headed by a chief and three deputies, coordinates the
committee's overall administrative activities. Party work is organized
under three directorates, each headed by a supervisory secretary, and a
number of administrative sections and functional commissions. The
directorates, designated as international affairs and propaganda, party
organization, and press and cultural affairs, supervise and direct the
work of the administrative sections. Not all of these sections are
listed in the party statutes or by the party press. A partial listing
includes sections for the economy, local administration, propaganda,
press, international affairs, party organs and personnel, national
minorities, and state security.

In addition to the directorates and administrative sections there were,
in 1970, eight formally established commissions directly tied to the
Central Committee. These were listed as the commissions for agriculture
and forestry; economic problems; ideological and cultural-educational
problems; international relations; organizational problems and internal
party activity; training of cadres, education, and science; development
of the social and state system; and social questions, public health, and
living standards.

Two party training institutions, the Stefan Gheorghiu Academy of
Social-Political Education and the Training of Leading Cadres and the
Institute of Historical and Social-Political Studies, operate under the
direct supervision of the Central Committee. Located in Bucharest, both
of these institutions are designed to train and indoctrinate key
bureaucratic personnel. The Central Committee also maintains a museum of
party history in Bucharest.

In charge of all of the political machinery of the PCR, the Standing
Presidium of the Central Committee is the party's center for
decisionmaking and policy control and, as such, is the most powerful
body in the country. There were, at the beginning of 1972, four party
leaders who held positions concurr