Demography and Nation
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.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TRANSLITERATION TABLE OF BULGARIAN CYRILLIC
LIST OF TABLES
INTRODUCTION
1. OUTLINING THE PROBLEM
• THE OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH
• POPULATION AND POPULATION ANXIETIES FROM A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
2. METHODOLOGY
• APPROACHES: THE ‘REGENERATED’ NARRATIVE
• AGENTS OF RESEARCH AND LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
• INSTRUMENTS OF RESEARCH
• GENERAL LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
• SOURCES
Parliamentary minutes and parliamentary appendixes
Archival units
Mass media: newspapers and magazines
Independent publications
3. A HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PERIOD UNDER INVESTIGATION
• THE PATH TO NEUILLY (1919)
• IDEOLOGICAL DEFINITIONS OF THE ERA
4. SOCIAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE OF INTERWAR BULGARIA
5. A HISTORY OF BULGARIAN LEGISLATION – AN OUTLINE
PART I: REVITALISING 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)
• AN ‘ORANGE’ IDEOLOGY OF HEALTHCARE
• NON-CODIFIED PROVISIONS FOR MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTHCARE
2. THE DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE AND THE 1929 LAW FOR PEOPLE’S HEALTH
• LEGISLATIVE INTRODUCTION OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE IN BULGARIA
• THE 1929 LAW FOR PEOPLE’S HEALTH AND ITS HISTORICAL LEGACY
• ‘THE WAY THEY SAW IT’: THE PROBLEM OF ‘WISHFUL’ SOCIAL HYGIENE
• CONTRADICTIONS BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE
3. FERTILITY DECREASE AND THE REDISCOVERY OF STATE WELFARE
• THE FAILURE OF THE PROPAGANDA APPROACH
• THE LEGAL REVERSAL
CHAPTER 2: PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
1. STATE PROTECTION OF THE FAMILY: THE PRIVILEGED CHILD
• THE 1934 DECREE-LAW FOR PUBLIC ASSISTANCE AND ITS LEGISLATIVE AFTERMATH
2. LEGISLATION ON FAMILY ALLOWANCES IN BULGARIA
• INTRODUCING FAMILY ALLOWANCES IN BULGARIA - A HISTORICAL OUTLINE
• THE POLITICAL CONTEXT OF DISCOURSE
• THE DECREE FOR FAMILY ALLOWANCES (1942)
• BINDING SOCIAL WELFARE AND PUBLIC SECURITY
3. THE DISADVANTAGED CHILD: THE LAW FOR CHILDREN BORN OUTSIDE MARRIAGE AND THEIR AVOWAL, AND FOR ADOPTION, NOVEMBER 1940
• EARLY LEGAL DEBATES AND MODERNISATION
• IN THE NAME OF THE CHILD AND ITS MOTHER, AND … SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
• MOTHERS’ RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S ISSUES
• REFORM BILLS (1924–33)
• ILLEGITIMACY AND MEDIA RESPONSE
• THE LEGAL BREAKTHROUGH (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
• ETHNIC IMBALANCE AND MILITARY ALARM
• POPULATION GROWTH OR POVERTY CONCERNS?
• THE IMAGE OF THE ‘NEW’ FAMILY
4. EARLY PARLIAMENTARY ALARM ABOUT BIRTH DECLINE
CHAPTER 4: ACTIVITIES ‘FROM BELOW’: THE LEAGUE OF LARGE, MNOGODETNI, FAMILIES
1. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
2. ORGANISATION
• NETWORKS AND NETWORK ACTIVITIES
• CONGRESSES AND SYMBOLISM
• MANAGEMENT AND MEMBERSHIP
• ROLE MODELS
3. COMBATING POVERTY
• CHILD ALLOWANCES, TAX-REVISIONS AND RAILWAY FARE DISCOUNTS
• APPEALS FOR LAND REDISTRIBUTION AND JUSTICE
CHAPTER 5: PETŬR GABROVSKI AND THE LAW FOR LARGE, MNOGODETNI, BULGARIAN FAMILIES
1. IDEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND
2. THE LAW FOR LARGE, MNOGODETNI BULGARIAN FAMILIES
• LEGISLATIVE PREPARATIONS
• INFLUENCES AND MOTIVATION
• DRAFTS AND COMMENTS
• OFFICIAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONSIDERATIONS
• THE FINAL VERSION
3. THE BACHELOR’S TAX CONTROVERSY
4. THE LEGAL AFTERMATH
CONCLUSIONS
• LEGISLATION ON THE FAMILY AND CHILDREN (1918-44)
• AN OVERVIEW OF MOTIVES – ‘THE WAY THEY SAW IT’
• PRIVILEGED AND UNDERPRIVILEGED TARGET GROUPS OF SOCIAL LEGISLATION
• POLITICAL PARTICIPANTS AND PRESSURE ACTIVISTS
• AFTERMATH