Bulgaria’s Royal Elections

Issue Date April 2002
Volume 13
Issue 2
Page Numbers 141-155
file Print
arrow-down-thin Download from Project MUSE
external View Citation

Read the full essay here.

Last year, Bulgarians elected their newly returned former king as prime minister and then, in a shocking upset, ousted their incumbent president. What do these results portend for the future of Bulgarian democracy?

About the Author

Zoltan Barany is Frank C. Erwin Jr. Centennial Professor of Government at the University of Texas–Austin. He is the author most recently of States Without Armies: Why They Exist and How They Survive (forthcoming).

View all work by Zoltan Barany

Further Reading

Volume 35, Issue 2

East-Central Europe: The Young and the Far-Right

Far-right parties in Europe’s newer democracies have been working hard to appeal to younger citizens, and for good reason: Young people’s shifting values make them a ripe target for the…

Volume 29, Issue 3

Explaining Eastern Europe: “Soft Decisionism” in Bulgaria

Bulgaria continues to enjoy free and fair elections, but over the last decade its politics has come to be dominated by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, who practices a brand of…

Volume 18, Issue 4

Is East-Central Europe Backsliding? EU Accession Is No “End of History”

The countries of Central and Eastern Europe successfully transitioned to democracy. Do their ongoing political problems exist today because of or in spite of the European Union?