Wars and the formation of the welfare state in Bulgaria

This article examines the impact of interstate wars on the development of the Bulgarian welfare state. Drawing on extensive primary sources, it shows that military conflicts were a major catalyst for the introduction and expansion of social policy in a predominantly agrarian society under authoritarian rule. In the course of the five interstate wars in which Bulgaria was involved between 1879 and 1944, a variety of welfare measures were adopted, including social protection for soldiers and veterans, social insurance programmes, labour protection legislation and pro-natalist family policies. These reforms stemmed from the strategic efforts of authoritarian elites to secure political loyalty, social cohesion and internal stability under conditions of mass mobilisation and war crisis. The article contributes to comparative welfare state research in three ways. First, it shows that autocratic regimes pursue selective social policies, particularly with pension policy, targeting occupational groups that are crucial to regime survival and state capacity. Second, it shows that large-scale military mobilisation forces even authoritarian governments to extend social protection to new groups of beneficiaries. Third, the Bulgarian case illustrates that democracy is neither a necessary condition nor a conditioning factor for postwar welfare state expansion, underscoring the tremendous impact of wars on social policy. The study contributes to a more global and historically grounded account of the emergence of the welfare state and calls for further research on the role of warfare in shaping social policy development in Eastern Europe and the Global South.