ABSTRACT
This chapter presents Bulgaria profiles of longstanding democracies and of the European Union, and provides essential detail on history, electoral system, political parties and cleavages, and governments. Bulgaria achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire following the Russo-Turkish war of 1877–1878, but the country did not gain full independence until 22 September 1908. In 1934 a royal dictatorship ushered in a period of non-party administration, after which only selected parties were revived, including the Bulgarian Communist Party. Bulgaria would join the European Union in 2007. For the 1990 election the Bulgarian National Assembly consisted of 400 members elected by a mixed system, with half the seats being elected in single-member districts and half elected by closed party list proportional representation and the d’Hondt method. Bulgarian party politics has often had some main parties, but the specific parties have changed. What has been constant is the ongoing presence of the Bulgarian Socialist Party.
