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Political Economy of Reform in Bulgarian Agriculture

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Privatization of Agriculture in New Market Economies: Lessons from Bulgaria

Part of the book series: Natural Resource Management and Policy ((NRMP,volume 6))

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Abstract

This paper explains the process of restoring property rights in Bulgarian agriculture as the result of the fight between reformers and ex-Communists over the future political constellation of the rural electorate. The prolonged hold on power by the former Communists, and the stalemate in parliament radicalized the opposition and the electorate. Land reform was designed to break up existing production structures and prevent Communist allies from taking over the private agricultural economy. Furthermore, in order to push the LALOLU implementation beyond a critical mass (irreversible) stage, the UDF government was willing to give up short-run benefits for long-run political gains: the government refused to provide agricultural credit policies to smooth the transition because, unless well targeted, such policies could have adverse effects on the privatization process.

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Authors
  1. J. Swinnen
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Berkeley, USA

    Andrew Schmitz  & Kirby Moulton  & 

  2. University of London, Wye College, UK

    Allan Buckwell

  3. Research Institute of Agricultural Economics, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Sofia Davidova

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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Swinnen, J. (1994). Political Economy of Reform in Bulgarian Agriculture. In: Schmitz, A., Moulton, K., Buckwell, A., Davidova, S. (eds) Privatization of Agriculture in New Market Economies: Lessons from Bulgaria. Natural Resource Management and Policy, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1388-5_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1388-5_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-4608-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-1388-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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