Ministerial advisors, bureaucracies, and party patronage: a look at Bulgaria

The current paper examines ministerial advisors in the Bulgarian executive and the way they relate to respective ministers and to the public administration. The main questions to be addressed include: How are ministerial advisers selected and based on what principles and criteria? How do they relate to senior civil servants at the respective ministry and what degree of decision-making power do they have? Are such positions part of a party patronage system? If so, what type of patronage – reward- or policy control-driven (Kopecký, Mair, Spirova 2012)? The paper utilizes official government sources, information from media sources, and interviews.