The Bulgarian Socialist Party: The long road to Europe

Abstract

The article provides an analysis of the evolution of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) from a Marxist party in the late 1980s into a European socialist party by the early 2000s. The BSP dominance of the political process in Bulgaria during the early and mid-1990s can be attributed, this article argues, to several factors: the nature of the old regime, the absence of any meaningful opposition before 1989 and its relative weakness during the transition period, the crucial role that the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP) played in the transition to democracy, and the organizational continuity that the newly renamed BSP chose to maintain. In turn, the preserved dominance of the BSP allowed it to remain relatively unreformed in terms of economic and foreign policy positions. It was only after its devastating defeat in the 1997 elections that the BSP came to advocate a truly social-democratic platform and to support a pro-EU and pro-NATO foreign policy. This ideological transformation of the BSP was supported and encouraged actively by the Party of European Socialists, which has been deeply involved in the process of strengthening the social democracy in Bulgaria since the mid-1990s. As a result of this transformation, by 2008 the BSP is recognized as a democratic, center-left party.

Political Conservatism and Left–Right Orientation in 28 Eastern and Western European Countries

“…One potential factor for the diverse results may be the postcommunist economic and political development: Countries that are politically and economically more similar to the West may be more likely to resemble the West even in this respect. Poland and Slovenia, where resistance to change was connected to right‐wing orientation, are both among the most developed former communist countries politically and economically (Mishler & Rose, ; Spirova, ; Vachudova, ). In Bulgaria and Slovakia, resistance to change was related to left‐wing orientation in both 2006 and 2008, which might be explained by their slow political development (Spirova, ; Vauchudova, ), and in case of Bulgaria, by slow economic development as well (Mishler & Rose, ).…”

The Ideological Shadow of Authoritarianism

“…In the post-communist context, former Communist parties were largely discredited and shunned by other parties (Ishiyama 1995;Mahr and Nagle 1995). The instances of "success" are attributed to their ability to either re-brand themselves as social democratic parties (Grzymala-Busse 2002), obfuscate their links through 'ideological flexibility' (Pop-Eleches 2008), or rely on the historical weakness of the anti-communist opposition (Spirova 2008). To protect their anti-communist reputation, several ex-Communist parties have implemented economic liberalization despite their promises to the contrary in party manifestos (Tavits and Letki 2009) and some of them even initiated lustration policies (Letki 2002).…”

Twenty years after 1989: moving on from transitology

“…Meanwhile, the second wave of Political Science research on post-Communist Europe saw an increase in academic interest in the countries of Romania and Bulgaria. This interest became manifest through case-studies that concentrated on the perspectives of Bulgarian and Romanian political parties on their countries' prospects for accession to the EU (Spirova 2008a(Spirova , 2008b; the persistence of negative catalysts such as authoritarian tendencies (Romania) and corruption (Bulgaria) (Gledhill 2005, Noutcheva andBechev 2008); and the even greater necessity to harmonize domestic legislation on minority issues with EU standards (Csergo 2002, Rechel 2008. Lastly, regional experts on the Western Balkans demonstrated a particular interest in subjects such as the interaction among regional governments, supranational agencies and international organizations within the broader framework of securitization in the post-Yugoslav space (Grillot 2008, Söberg 2008, and comparative approaches to democratization processes in the post-Yugoslav space since the Dayton Agreement (1995) (Turkes andGokgöz 2006, Alexander 2008).…”