'Bulgaria and Europe: Shifting Identities' offers a comprehensive analysis of Bulgaria's relationship with the European continent, focusing particularly on its accession to the EU and the aftermath.
This book contains country studies dealing with economic reform projects and with problems of transition from centrally planned to reformed systems - Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. It deals with two special areas of reform: foreign trade and banking system. .
Bulgaria has made solid progress in its territorial governance and socio-economic development. Yet, it has not been able to counteract large and increasing territorial disparities. Doing so will require addressing remaining structural challenges that may be limiting further transformation, government performance and regional resilience.
This book adopts novel theoretical approaches to study the diverse welfare pathways that have evolved across Central and Eastern Europe since the end of communism. It highlights the role of explanatory factors such as micro-causal mechanisms, power politics, path departure, and elite strategies.
The collapse of state socialism in 1989 focused attention on the transition to democracy and capitalism in Eastern Europe. But for many people who actually lived through the transition, the changes were often disappointing. In Domesticating Revolution, Gerald Creed explains this unexpected outcome through a detailed study of economic reforms in one Bulgarian village.
Providing a detailed empirical account of the ongoing political, social and economic transformation of the country, this book assesses the post-communist period in Bulgaria and examines the development of the democratization process so far.
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
Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Prospects for the 1980s focuses on the institution of economic reforms and prospects in Eastern Europe, including manpower availability, scarce and expensive energy and raw materials, deficiency of technological innovation, and inflexibilities in management. The selection first offers information on the economic reforms in Bulgaria, Romanian economic reforms, and the economic reforms in Czechoslovakia. Discussions focus on "the kj problem" and its resolution, evaluation of the Bulgarian model, Romanian economic development, and principles contained in the directives. The text then examines the reform of the system of economic management in Poland; economic reforms and consumers in Eastern Europe; and the prospects for the 1980s of the economic reforms in Bulgaria and Romania. The publication takes a look at the economic prospects for the 1980s of Czechoslovakia and the German Democratic Republic. Topics include factors impending economic growth, overemployment, increases in consumer good prices, welfare of consumers, and decreasing economic growth. The book further elaborates on the economic prospects for the 1980s of Hungary and Poland and the effects of energy development on East European economic prospects. The selection is a vital reference for economists and readers interested in the prospects for the 1980s of the economic reforms in Eastern Europe.
First published in 1986, The Bulgarian Economy (now with a new preface by the author) traces the rapid growth of the Bulgarian economy throughout the twentieth century. It also notes the obstacles Bulgaria has faced in bringing about industrial development in a small relatively poor country where, in the early twentieth century, agriculture predominated. It explores the difficulties which have arisen because of the unusual domination of a relatively isolated capital city, Sofia, over the rest of the country. It examines the effects of Bulgaria's being on the losing side in three wars. An abrupt change in economic strategy and management came with the Communist accession to power in 1944 and with the simultaneous reorientation from close ties with Germany to close ties with the Soviet Union. The book shows, however, that significant state control had appeared well before this transition and that there is much in common between the pre- and post-war periods. It goes on to emphasise economic growth and structural change in the post-war period and the unusually large role of foreign trade. The reforms which have taken place since 1960 are accorded a separate, final chapter.