Bulgarian Sport Policy 1945–1989: A Strategic Relations Approach

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games have stimulated discussions about the success of different sport systems, and the Chinese model in particular. Revisiting explanations of sport in the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe during the Cold War seems timely, as the current Chinese model of sport was largely designed after the Soviet example established in this period. This paper examines Bulgarian sport policy between 1945 and 1989. It employs a strategic relation approach to analyse sport policy-making as a strategic relation closely linked to the dominant state project of building a new ‘stateness’. It goes beyond ideological interpretations and argues that the state represents a strategic terrain where these relations have to be established in struggles, the outcomes of which are always uncertain. Furthermore, past and present struggles and their outcomes create various socio-political environments that presuppose the forms of state selectivity and intervention in sport. The process of constructing sport policy was influenced by two main categories of strategic relations: intra-state, including political, organizational and personal relations between the party, state apparatus and various sport and non-sport organizations and their managers; and transnational, concerning ideological, political, economic and organizational relations with both Communist and Western countries and international sport organizations.