The party manifestos for the Bulgarian 1994 elections

Election manifestos express in synthesis the ideological adjustments, political identity, ambitions and capabilities of a political formation. An analysis of the manifestos of the Bulgarian political parties for the elections of 1990, 1991 and 1994, and a comparison between them and the manifestos of other post‐communist East European parties, reveals the following features of the Bulgarian party system. First, movements towards radicalism on the left; second, increased revanchism on the radical right; third, a more marked, though not disruptive, nationalism; fourth, increased populist trends; fifth, more liberalism; sixth, increased pragmatism; and finally, the emergence of a clearer social‐democratic profile. This increased and more clearly defined differentiation of party identities offered Bulgarian voters in 1994 new, if somewhat delayed, opportunities. Political life in Bulgaria continues to be charged with tensions, which are underpinned by a historically inherited and ideologically motivated dissensus. The shadow of the Second World War continues to separate the left from the right. The conversion of differentiation into head‐on confrontation is an ever‐present threat to Bulgarian democracy.