Professional interest groups and their impact on regulation: The law on the architects' chamber in Bulgaria1

Abstract

This paper discusses the question of how a particular legislative initiative is realised in post-socialist Bulgaria. Analysing the history of the Law on the Architects' Chamber I will outline the main processes observed both in the architect's profession and in political and legislative institutions, as well as the main mechanisms of interactions between policy makers and architects. The history of this legislative initiative, which continues during almost the whole period of post-socialist transformations, is presented in terms of a process going through four stages. This paper argues that, first, to understand the reasons for the occurrence of a law, the parties concerned (political and professional spaces) should be analysed as equal with respect to the solution of an issue (the occurrence of the law); second, that such a ‘medial’ analysis that does not prioritise a priori neither the political nor the professional sphere may help us understand how and why the above-mentioned Law is seen as a ‘long’ story during the period of post-socialist transformations. I have based my analysis on the concepts of ‘segments’ and ‘linked ecologies’. I have also borrowed some ideas from existing research on the post-socialist transformations.