Jnl Soc. Pol., 36, 1, 141–155 C  2007 Cambridge University Press doi:10.1017/S0047279406000419 Printed in the United Kingdom Childcare in Post-Communist Welfare States: The Case of Bulgaria VASSILIKI SOTIROPOULOU * and DIMITRI A. SOTIROPOULOS ** ∗ Expert, Managing Authority, INTERREG Programme, Greek Ministry of Economy and Finance ∗∗ Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Athens, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, 19 Omirou Street, GR-10672, Athens, Greece email: dsotirop@hol.gr Abstract In transition societies such as contemporary Bulgaria, the legacy of the communist past in childcare policy is reflected in the state-centred mentality of officials, the tendency towards over-regulation and the complex and inefficient relations among multiple state actors. The traditional approach to children as objects of protection rather than as subjects of rights still prevails. Efforts to modernise legislation and to introduce innovative childcare schemes lack provision of implementation mechanisms. Such efforts are often driven more by the government’s need to show progress to international and EU agencies than by commitment to a rights-based approach in childcare. Bulgarian and international NGOs gradually assume a more decisive role in childcare. Reform is needed in institutional care, legislation, administrative structures of childcare, training of professionals and the mentality of care providers, politicians, bureaucrats and the wider public. However, reforms depend on genuine political will to change and implement policies, allocation of funds and change in attitudes. Introduction In industrial societies, childcare was initially understood as a set of services targeted at the most disadvantaged groups of children. The first goal of childcare policy was to provide minimum physical subsistence. Soon, services expanded to include social and psychological help. The idea that it was the responsibility of the community to provide children with the advantages that their parents could not supply is a twentieth-century development. In 1989, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child introduced the best interests of the child as a primary consideration in all actions concerning children. It was then that the collapse of the Ceausescu regime in Romania, at the end of 1989, revealed the tragic situation of vast numbers of children abandoned in institutions where the treatment strongly resembled that of past centuries. The World Summit for Children, which followed in 1990, set out ‘an ambitious but feasible agenda for the well being of children to be achieved by the year 2000’ (UNICEF, 1990). The collapse of the communist regimes in the region of south-eastern Europe had a dramatic impact on children.