Area Handbook for Bulgaria

by Eugene K. Keefe; Violeta D. Baluyut; William Giloane; Anne K. Long; James M. Moore; Neda A. Walpole

SECTION II. POLITICAL

CHAPTER 8

GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM

The People's Republic of Bulgaria is a socialist state with a form of government not too different from the Soviet model on which it was patterned. Following the classical Marxist-Leninist ideology, it subscribes to rule by the working class—that is, dictatorship of the proletariat—a doctrine asserting that all power emanates from the people and is exercised by them through the electoral process. Corollary to this right of the people to elect national representatives is the power to recall them through the same instrument of the ballot. In practice, however, the dictatorship of the proletariat has been a dictatorship of the communist party.

The government has its theoretical base in the constitution adopted in 1971, which superseded the earlier version of 1947. The 1971 Constitution provides for a representative unicameral legislature known as the National Assembly, an executive committee within the legislature called the State Council, and a cabinet of advisers known as the Council of Ministers. For regional and local government the constitution establishes a hierarchical structure of people's councils. Parallel to the entire governmental structure there exist corresponding levels of the Bulgarian Communist Party (Bulgarska Komunisticheska Partiya—BKP, see Glossary) and, in practice, the party leadership at each level exercises executive and legislative control.

The 1971 Constitution, unlike the 1947 document, explicitly sanctions the leadership of the BKP. Its preamble unequivocally proclaims the leading role of the BKP in the government machinery as the directing force in promoting socialist goals and in actively participating in the fraternity of friendly socialist countries. Particularly noteworthy is the statement of recognition of Bulgaria's alignment with the Soviet Union.

The 1971 Constitution also recognizes the representation of multi-interest groups within the united Fatherland Front (Otechestven Front), a coalition of left-of-center political groups, which had its origins during World War II. The front has become a large umbrella for mass organizations and is headed by the National Council of the Fatherland Front, which functions under party auspices. As constituted in 1973, the front remained a control mechanism or, more appropriately, a transmission belt for the BKP.

The drafters of the 1971 Constitution of Bulgaria subscribed to Lenin's principle of unity of power, which advocated combined legislative-executive authority in one state organ of power. In the 1970s the State Council had assumed legislative initiative as well as executive responsibility, whereas the National Assembly, which was constitutionally endowed with the legislative authority, followed the lead of the State Council.

Government is structured on two levels: national and local. The highest legislative body, according to the constitution, is the National Assembly, which meets only three times a year in very short sessions. Executive direction at the national level comes from the State Council, which theoretically is elected by and responsible to the National Assembly. In effect, however, the council has become a superior body. Because the National Assembly meets infrequently, the State Council assumes legislative initiative in addition to its executive responsibility. The third major organ at the national level, referred to in the constitution as the government, is the Council of Ministers, which is theoretically appointed by and responsible to the National Assembly but is actually responsible to the State Council. National policy decisions reach the grass roots level through the pyramidal system of people's councils.

The judiciary, although independent in theory, is an integral part of the government structure that operates as an adjunct of the executive-legislative organs. By design the judicial system legitimizes communist control and gives legal expression to party policy. The system is structured so that the courts of law and the prosecution agency function together, and the latter enjoys police power.