Bulgaria In Transition Politics, Economics, Society, And Culture After Communism

 Since the forced resignation of Todor Zhivkov in November of 1989, Bulgaria's transition to democracy has been marked by good beginnings ending in frustration or disappointment. It has avoided the violent ethnic confrontations that have characterized much of the “post-Communist” Balkans, but has also seen the development of an influential criminal

Preface -- Introduction -- Politics and Law -- A Democracy Born in Pain: Bulgarian Politics, 1989–1997 -- Popular Attitudes toward Politics -- The Constitution and the Rule of Law -- The Economy and the Environment -- Bulgarian Economic Policy and Performance, 1991–1997 -- Social Dimensions of Economic Change: Is the Private Market a Solution to Bulgaria’s Economic Problems? -- Political Change and Environmental Policy -- Ethnic and Religious Issues -- Bulgaria’s Muslim Minorities -- The “Ilindentsi” – Does Bulgaria Have a Macedonian Minority? -- The Schism in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, 1992–1997 -- Culture -- The New Bulgarian Literature: Deconstructing the Pyramid -- Canaries And Birds of Prey: The New Season of Bulgarian Cinema -- Foreign Relations -- Bulgaria in the Balkans -- Bulgaria’s Search for Security -- Appendix

John D. Bell is professor of history at UMBC in Maryland and is a past president of the Bulgarian Studies Association. He has written numerous articles on Bulgarian, Balkan, and Russian history and is the author of Peasants in Power: Alexander Stamboliski and the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, 1899–1923 (1977), The Bulgarian Communist Party from Blagoev to Zhivkov (1986), and The Reader’s Guide to Bulgaria (1994).