Demography and Nation
Social Legislation and Population Policy in Bulgaria,
1918–1944
Svetla Baloutzova
Center
for Advanced Study, Sofia
Throughout centuries, authorities have put pains into
‘engineering’ their populations by attempting
to regulate the birth and child mortality trends in
either direction, or striving to achieve a desired ‘population
quality’ design. The book contributes to the historical
studies pursued in the social policy and population
domain by channelling scholarly curiosity towards the
less known path of East Europe.
The monograph investigates the origins of state policy
toward population and the family in Bulgaria. Reconstructs
the evolution of state legislation in the field of social
policy toward the family between the two World Wars,
colored by concerns about the national good and demographic
considerations. It sets the laws regarding family welfare
in their framework of a distinctively cultural, historical
and political discourse to follow the motives behind
the legislative initiatives.
An important contribution to the interdisciplinary
field of social history and historical demography, and
a link between the ideological roots of social and population
policy in the past and of today.
This is the first volume in the CEU
Press Studies in the History of Medicine series
Contents
Acknowledgement Transliteration table of Bulgarian
Cyrillic List of Tables Introduction
1. Outlining the problem 2. Methodology 3. A historical
outline of the period under investigation 4. Social
and demographic structure of interwar Bulgaria 5. A
history of Bulgarian legislation – an outline
PART I: REGENERATING A DEFEATED
NATION Chapter 1: Building-up
a Maternal and Child Healthcare 1. An ‘orange’
start: the BANU’s Bill for People’s Health
(1923) 2. The Democratic Alliance and the 1929 Law for
People’s Health 3. Fertility decrease and the
rediscovery of state welfare Chapter 2:
Public Assistance 1. State protection of the family:
the privileged child 2. Legislation on family allowances
in Bulgaria 3. the disadvantaged child: The Law for
Children Born Outside Marriage and their Avowal, and
for Adoption, November 1940 PART II: Towards
Pronatalism Chapter 3: Demography, media representations
and parliamentary discourse 1. The ‘Discovery’
of birth decline 2. Demographers on the ‘collapsing’
demographic trend 3. Mass media responses to fertility
decline 4. Early parliamentary alarm about birth decline
Chapter 4 : Activities ‘from
below’: the League of Mnogodetni, child-rich parents
1. Historical Overview 2. Organisation 3. Combating
poverty Chapter 5: Petŭr Gabrovski
and the Law for Large, Mnogodetni, Bulgarian Families
1. Ideological background 2. The Law for Large, Mnogodetni
Bulgarian Families 3. The bachelor’s tax controversy
4. The legal aftermath Conclusions Bibliography
Index
2011
296 pages
ISBN 978-963-9776-66-1 cloth $45.00 / €39.95 /
£35.00
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