Existing studies on legal approaches to ethnic minority representation often highlight different systems’strengths and weaknesses. While this scholarship provides important insights into the growing body ofliterature on minority representation, the topic remains largely under-theorized. Because systems of ethnicminority representation clarify the organizations and philosophies of diverse states, more theoreticalanalyses can enrich the descriptive literature. Building on the existing scholarship, this article assessesRomania’s particular version of proportional representation regarding designated national minorities. Itapplies two theoretical models: (1) institutional activism and (2) ethnic intermediation. The former clarifiesthe establishment of Romania’s post-communist constitutional provisions regarding minority organizations, and the latter explains how small yet influential minority populations make claims to and reallocateresources from the Romanian state. Through a unique, understudied case study – the Armenian communityof Romania – this article attempts to broaden ethnic minority representation scholarship by refining thetheoretical frameworks of institutional activism and ethnic intermediation.