Sociopolitics or social policy: Bulgarian welfare in transition?

In this article, the author reviews the achievements and limitations of postwar Bulgarian social policy. A number of crisis points in contemporary social policy are identified. These include the worsening mortality rates of working people, the sharpening debate between allocation according to need or merit, and controversy surrounding subordination of family policy to economic and demographic considerations. The central irony of social policy in state socialist societies is well exemplified in Bulgaria. The more the official ideology of the regime regards the main purpose of social and political organization as being the meeting of human needs, the more easily and unashamedly any particular social policy can be an instrument of some wider economic, demographic, or other political purpose. The prospect for the emergence of an independent social policy is considered.