strictions on artisans' activities have been based on
the BKP tenet that private ownership of means of production and the use
of personal property to acquire unearned income are incompatible with
the socialist order and the country's new constitution.

Economic activities are centrally planned and directed along lines
prescribed by the BKP. The functions of planning and control are
exercised by the Council of Ministers with the aid of specialized
economic ministries, such as the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of
Chemical Industry and Power Generation, and the Ministry of Foreign
Trade, and of various governmental committees and commissions (see ch.
8). The state banking system and, more particularly, bank credit have
also served as tools for the control of enterprises and trusts.

The economic management structure has been subject to frequent changes.
In the spring of 1972 there were fourteen economic ministries, including
five ministries exclusively concerned with branches of industry and
construction. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Food Industry, as its
name implies, has functioned in two major economic sectors and has also
had substantial responsibilities in the field of distribution. Among the
committees and commissions the most important have been the State
Planning Committee, the Committee on Prices, and the Commission for
Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation. In December 1972 the
Commission on the Living Standard was created to coordinate and control
the fulfillment of the national living standard program decided upon by
the plenum of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party.
Attached to the Council of Ministers and chaired by a deputy minister,
the commission is composed of ministers and deputy ministers,
representatives of public organizations, scientists, and other members.

Since the beginning of 1971 economic management has been more highly
centralized than before. A plan for partial decentralization of economic
decision making adopted in 1965 was abandoned by 1968. The economy is
organized into trusts (officially known as state economic associations)
that unite enterprises within branches of economic sectors along
functional lines, such as metallurgy, textiles, food processing,
railroads, freight forwarding, tourism, wholesale distribution,
publishing, and filmmaking. In agriculture, trusts are known as
agroindustrial complexes; each complex unites several previously
indepen