Abstract
This paper presents a critical study of the participation of Bulgarian disabled people’s organisations in the policy‐making process on a national level. It describes how the ‘representatives’ of disabled Bulgarians become depoliticised and even depersonalised when their participation becomes institutionalised through the National Council on Integration of People with Disabilities. It is argued that such an instance of ‘participation’ actually sustains the status quo of underdevelopment and dependency. A parallel is drawn with the concerns of the British disability movement. The paper ends by suggesting some tentative solutions to the highlighted problems.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Kapka Panayotova, Lili Angelova, Georgi Tsvetkov and the two anonymous referees of the journal for their feedback on earlier drafts of this paper.