BULGARIA Marxist Regimes Series Series editor: Bogdan Szajkowski, Department of Sociology, University College, Cardiff Afghanistan Bhabani Sen Gupta Angola Keith Somerville Bulgaria Robert J. McIntyre China Marc Blecher Ethiopia Peter Schwab German Democratic Republic Mike Dennis Ghana Donald I. Ray Grenada Tony Thorndike Guinea-Bissau Rosemary E. Galli and Jocelyn Jones Guyana Colin Baber and Henry B. Jeffrey Hungary Hans-Georg Heinrich Kampuchea Michael Vickery Laos Martin Stuart-Fox Madagascar Maureen Covell Marxist Local Governments in Western Europe and Japan ed. Bogdan Szajkowski Mongolia Alan J. K. Sanders Nicaragua David Close P.D.R. Yemen Tareq and Jacqueline Ismael Romania Michael Shafir Soviet Union Ronald J. Hill Surinam Henk E. Chin and Hans Buddingh’ Further Titles Albania Benin and The Congo Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe Cuba Czechoslovakia Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Marxist State Governments in India Mozambique Poland Vietnam Yugoslavia Zimbabwe Adaptations of Communism Comparative Analysis Cumulative Index BULGARIA Politics, Economics and Society Robert J. McIntyre p Pinter (Publishers) UI London and New York © Robert J. McIntyre 1988 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. Please direct all enquiries to the publishers. First published in Great Britain in 1988 by Pinter Publishers Limited 25 Floral Street, London WC2E 9DS British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A C1P catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McIntyre, Robert J. Bulgaria: politics, economics, and society/Robert J. McIntyre. p. cm.—(Marxist regimes series) Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN 0-86187-398-X ISBN 0-86187-399-8 (pbk.) 1. Bulgaria—Civilization. I. Title. II. Series. DR91.M38 1988 949.7 '7-dc 19 87-34177 CIP Typeset by Joshua Associates Limited, Oxford Printed in Great Britain by SRP Ltd, Exeter Editor’s Preface Most observers and analysts agree that Bulgaria is on a point of change. This, the first comprehensive book on Bulgarian politics, economics and society, provides the reader with an in-depth analysis of the background, current state and prospects of success of the various experiments taking place in the country’s economic, social and political life. At the same time this monograph is also a timely and important contribu­ tion to the overall analysis of Marxist regimes. The study of Marxist regimes has commonly been equated with the study of communist political systems. There were several historical and methodological reasons for this. For many years it was not difficult to distinguish the eight regimes in Eastern Europe and four in Asia which resoundingly claimed adherence to the tenets of Marxism and more particularly to their Soviet interpretation—Marxism- Leninism. These regimes, variously called ‘People's Republic’, ‘People's Democratic Republic’, or ‘Democratic Republic’, claimed to have derived their inspiration from the Soviet Union to which, indeed, in the over­ whelming number of cases they owed their establishment. To many scholars and analysts these regimes represented a multiplication of and geographical extension of the ‘Soviet model’ and consequently of the Soviet sphere of influence. Although there were clearly substantial similari­ ties between the Soviet Union and the people’s democracies, especially in the initial phases of their development, these were often overstressed at the expense of noticing the differences between these political systems. It took a few years for scholars to realize that generalizing the particular, i.e., applying the Soviet experience to other states ruled by elites which claimed to be guided by ‘scientific socialism’, was not good enough. The relative simplicity of the assumption of a cohesive communist bloc was questioned after the expulsion of Yugoslavia from the Communist Informa­ tion Bureau in 1948 and in particular after the workers’ riots in Poznan in 1956 and the Hungarian revolution of the same year. By the mid-1960s, the totalitarian model of communist politics, which until then had been very much in force, began to crumble. As some of these regimes articulated demands for a distinctive path of socialist development, many specialists studying these systems began to notice that the cohesiveness of the communist bloc was less apparent than had been claimed before. Also by the mid-1960s, in the newly independent African states vi Editor’s Preface ‘democratic’ multi-party states were turning into one-party states or military dictatorships, thus questioning the inherent superiority of liberal democracy, capitalism and the values that went with it. Scholars now began to ponder on the simple contrast between multi-party democracy and a one-party totali­ tarian rule that had satisfied an earlier generation. More importantly, however, by the beginning of that decade Cuba had a revolution without Soviet help, a revolution which subsequently became to many political elites in the Third World not only an inspiration but a clear military, political and ideological example to follow. Apart from its romantic appeal, to many nationalist movements the Cuban revolution also demon­ strated a novel way of conducting and winning a nationalist, anti-imperialist war and accepting Marxism as the state ideology without a vanguard communist party. The Cuban precedent was subsequently followed in one respect or another by scores of Third World regimes, which used the adoption of‘scientific socialism’ tied to the tradition of Marxist thought as a form of mobilization, legitimation or association with the prestigious symbols and powerful high-status regimes such as the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and Vietnam. Despite all these changes the study of Marxist regimes remains in its infancy and continues to be hampered by constant and not always pertinent comparison with the Soviet Union, thus somewhat blurring the important underlying common theme—the ‘scientific theory’ of the laws of develop­ ment of human society and human history. This doctrine is claimed by the leadership of these regimes to consist of the discovery of objective causal relationships; it is used to analyse the contradictions which arise between goals and actuality in the pursuit of a common destiny. Thus the political elites of these countries have been and continue to be influenced in both their ideology and their political practice by Marxism more than any other current of social thought and political practice. The growth in the number and global significance, as well as the ideological, political and economic impact, ot Marxist regimes has presented scholars and students with an increasing challenge. In meeting this challenge, social scientists on both sides of the political divide have put forward a dazzling profusion of terms, models, programmes and varieties of inter­ pretation. It is against the background of this profusion that the present comprehensive series on Marxist regimes is offered. This collection of monographs is envisaged as a series of multi-disciplinary textbooks on the governments, politics, economics and society of these countries. Each of the monographs was prepared by a specialist on the country concerned. Thus, over fifty scholars from all over the world have Editor’s Preface vii contributed monographs which were based on first-hand knowledge. The geographical diversity of the authors, combined with the fact that as a group they represent many disciplines of social science, gives their individual analyses and the series as a whole an additional dimension. Each of the scholars who contributed to this series was asked to analyse such topics as the political culture, the governmental structure, the ruling party, other mass organizations, party-state relations, the policy process, the economy, domestic and foreign relations together with any features peculiar to the country under discussion. This series does not aim at assigning authenticity or authority to any single one of the political systems included in it. It shows that, depending on a variety of historical, cultural, ethnic and political factors, the pursuit of goals derived from the tenets of Marxism has produced different political forms at different times and in different places. It also illustrates the rich diversity among these societies, where attempts to achieve a synthesis between goals derived from Marxism on the one hand, and national realities on the other, have often meant distinctive approaches and solutions to the problems of social, political and economic development. University College Bogdan Szajkowski Cardiff Contents Editor’s Preface v List of Tables and Illustrations x Preface xi List of Abbreviations and Glossary xiv Basic Data xv 1 Introduction: The Bulgarian Development Experience 1 2 History and Political Traditions 15 3 The Political System 54 4 The Bulgarian Economy 85 5 The Social System 137 6 Summing Up: Is There a Bulgarian Economic-Political Model? 167 Bibliography 177 Index 191 List of Illustrations and Tables Map Bulgaria xxii Tables 2.1 Percentage of Age Group Single in 1900 21 2.2 Crude Birth Rates and Rates of Reproduction, Bulgaria, 1880-1985 22 2.3 Selected Countries: Indices of Fertility and Marital Proportions 23 2.4 Births per 1,000 Women, by Age Groups, 1955 27 2.5 Crude Birth and General Fertility Rates, 1955 27 2.6 Election Results, 1908-23 and 1946 38 2.7 September and October 1946 Election Results 50 3.1 Population and Membership in Political Organizations in 1986 54 3.2 Membership of the Bulgarian Communist Party 55 3.3 Elections for Local Office (People's Council) 58 3.4 Social Class Background of BCP Membership 59 3.5 Party and Government Interconnections, January 1988 61 3.6 Bulgarian Exports and Imports in 1985 79 3.7 Bulgarian Short- and Long-Term External Debt 80 4.1 Personal Plots: Size, Animal Stock and Output as Percentage of Total Agricultural Production 105 4.2 Sectoral Distribution of Fixed Investment, 1949-85 110 4.3 Success indicators under First and Second Reform Regimes 114 4.4 Various Consumer Goods per 100 Households, 1965-85 124 4.5 Food Production and Consumption, 1956-85 124 5.1 Income and Wage Equality in Bulgaria 144 5.2 Decile Ratios (P90/P10) for Selected Countries and Years 145 5.3 Urbanization and Industrialization, 1887-1985 149 5.4 Women Workers in Selected Occupations, 1970-85 162 5.5 Women Workers by Industrial Branch, 1970-85 164 5.6 Monthly Family Allowance and Birth Payments, 1960-86 (leva) 165 6.1 Bulgarian Estimated Gross and Net Convertible Currency Debt 172 Preface I was initially attracted to the study of Bulgaria because of the light I believed it could shed upon developments in other Soviet-type economies rather than because of its own characteristics. I have found it to be a surprising and intriguing country in many respects, clearly worthy of analysis and appraisal in its own right. It offers a second test case of what might be called the Stalin period model of rapid state-controlled and centrally planned industrializa­ tion and urbanization, albeit with great internal and external political differences. Bulgaria thus provides an indirect way of learning about and testing our causal understanding of the Soviet model of economic, political and cultural organization. By carefully weighing the similarities and differences it is possible to use Bulgarian experience to learn more about what is logically implied by the various features of the Soviet model, as against what might be the result of particularly Russian cultural, political and economic conditions. Because of this long list of developmental similarities, cultural affinities and historical connections (discussed in Chapters 1 and 2), Bulgarian developments can be analyzed fruitfully as a source of insights about both the Soviet past and future. Even with the special advantages provided by the Bulgarian perspective, the causal questions are still complex, since the existence of the Soviet Union as an admired model led to the adoption of some very similar arrangements in Bulgaria. By virtue of the close and, at least on the surface, largely trouble-free relationship with the Soviet Union, Bulgaria falls into the category of states that are unfortunately very difficult for Western scholars to appraise. Countries that have moved (or seem to have moved) significantly away from the Soviet model, or away from close political-cultural links with the Soviet Union, have tended to become the object of often uncritical Western praise and constructive curiosity. From Yugoslavia through China, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland this pattern has emerged, often to disappear if the deviation or split in one way or another closes or heals. Countries such as Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic, and Vietnam, which have generally close relationships with the Soviet Union, are subject to a special scrutiny and in general treated with disproportionate severity in Western popular and scholarly sources. The durability of the thoroughly incredible ‘Bulgarian Connection’ aspects of the Ali Agca-Pope Plot in English language cultures is perhaps the most recent manifestion of this pattern.