Bulgarian sport policy 1945-1989: A strategic relation perspective

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 (Jessop, 1990) 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, organisational and personal relations between the Party, state apparatus and various sport and non-sport organisations and their managers, and transnational, concerning ideological, political, economic and organisational relations with both communist and western countries and international sport organisations. Dr Vassil Girginov is Reader in Sport Management/Development in the School of Sport & Education at Brunel University, West London. He has taught at the National Sports Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria, the Universities of Luton, England and the Windsor, Canada. His research interests and publications (including five books) are in the field of sports development and comparative management and policy analysis, the Olympic movement and Eastern European sport. Vassil Girginov is currently working on two projects concerning the relationship between the culture of national sport organisations and participation in sport and the process of constructing sustainable sporting legacy in relation to the 2012 London Olympic Games. Address for correspondence: School of Sport and Education Heinz Wolff Building Brunel University Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, UK Tel: (+44) 1895 266811 Fax: (+44) 1895 269769 Email: [email protected]