s the National Assembly, an executive committee within the legislature
called the State Council, and a cabinet of advisers known as the Council
of Ministers. For regional and local government the constitution
establishes a hierarchical structure of people's councils. Parallel to
the entire governmental structure there exist corresponding levels of
the Bulgarian Communist Party (Bulgarska Komunisticheska Partiya--BKP,
see Glossary) and, in practice, the party leadership at each level
exercises executive and legislative control.

The 1971 Constitution, unlike the 1947 document, explicitly sanctions
the leadership of the BKP. Its preamble unequivocally proclaims the
leading role of the BKP in the government machinery as the directing
force in promoting socialist goals and in actively participating in the
fraternity of friendly socialist countries. Particularly noteworthy is
the statement of recognition of Bulgaria's alignment with the Soviet
Union.

The 1971 Constitution also recognizes the representation of
multi-interest groups within the united Fatherland Front (Otechestven
Front), a coalition of left-of-center political groups, which had its
origins during World War II. The front has become a large umbrella for
mass organizations and is headed by the National Council of the
Fatherland Front, which functions under party auspices. As constituted
in 1973, the front remained a control mechanism or, more appropriately,
a transmission belt for the BKP.

The drafters of the 1971 Constitution of Bulgaria subscribed
to Lenin's principle of unity of power, which advocated combined
legislative-executive authority in one state organ of power. In the
1970s the State Council had assumed legislative initiative as well as
executive responsibility, whereas the National Assembly, which was
constitutionally endowed with the legislative authority, followed the
lead of the State Council.

Government is structured on two levels: national and local. The highest
legislative body, according to the constitution, is the National
Assembly, which meets only three times a year in very short sessions.
Executive direction at the national level comes from the State Council,
which theoretically is elected by and responsible to the National
Assembly. In effect, however, the council has become a superior body.
Because the National Assembly meets infrequently, the State Council
assumes legislative initiative in addition to its executive
responsibilit