Party structure and party perspectives in Bulgaria

Anti‐party sentiment is a substantial element in the Bulgarian political culture. The structure of the new party system is thus an independent factor in the process of democratic consolidation in Bulgaria and the party space, as it develops, is likely to reproduce its founding structure. Although the Bulgarian party system was designed in accordance with a consensual view of democracy, there has been a tendency towards the development of a majoritarian system. In the whole period up to 1994 the failure of a functional centre party to enter parliament provoked a differentiation within the poles of what remained essentially a bi‐polar system ‐ a position which the composition of the 1994 parliament might modify.