With regards to later developments yes, but your thesis that Romania was democratic except for external pressures isn't tenable.
Yes, Romania eventually was put under the heel of both Nazi Germany and the Soviets, both had to use force to impose their control, but it looks to me like it was becoming a totalitarian state before that.
As I read more, King Carol II played off different factions within the country to advance his own dictatorial control of Romania. The 1938 coup seems to have been entirely internal and it may have been planned as early as 1937.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_II_of_Romania