The goals of citizenship training: A Bulgarian perspective

Abstract

In his article, Professor Charles Car-y separates the Soviet goals of citizenship from the content of these goals. In respect to both, his comments on the Soviet educational program are equally applicable to the Bulgarian case. Obviously, any such taxonomy as the one presented in Cary’s analysis (which in turn is based upon Alex Inkeles’s study) must be an arbitrary one by its very nature. Other terms are often used by Communist writers (in Bulgaria and elsewhere) to express the same concepts, and other categories and subcategories have been frequently employed, which-it might also be argued-are perhaps simpler and more precise. In order to facilitate the comparison, however, the present review will employ the terms and categories used by Car-y. Rather than isolate the goals of citizenship from their content, however, each of the goals described by Cary will be described and documented in terms of its Bulgarian context. Then examples will be given of how the attempt is made to achieve these goals through content stressing authority, loyalty, and participation. Because these three categories are most often interrelated, and space is limited, no effort will be made to isolate and identify them in the discussion. In most cases, which categories of content apply, and how, will be evident to the reader. The paper will primarily compare, then, Bulgarian goals of citizenship with those of the Soviet Union. As is true in the Soviet Union, Bulgarian schools also attempt to