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its general character, though it provided for a far more liberal system
of government than that existing in Russia herself.
A Grave Question
The draft Constitution was submitted to a Constituent Assembly
elected by the Bulgarian people at Tirnova in February 1879. The
Assembly elected a Committee of fifteen members to consider the
draft. This Committee revised the draft, making it less democratic
than before. The Assembly rejected their revision and set to work to
recast the Constitution, making it far more liberal, and including a
provision for universal suffrage. The Constitution thus revised was
affirmed and has been in force since, with occasional suspensions
when the Prince for a time took autocratic power. Since 1883 the
Constitution has not been suspended.
The main principles of the Bulgarian Constitution are:
(1) Separation of public authorities into legislative, executive and
judiciary.
(2) Equality of citizens, as regards civil and political rights.
(3) Inviolability of the person, residence, property, and
correspondence.
(4) Liberty of conscience, liberty of the press, liberty of public
meetings, and liberty to form associations.
(5) Direct and secret universal suffrage for the election of members
of the National Assembly, and departmental and municipal councils.
(6) Local self-government.
The authorities under the constitution are:
1. The king, who is head of the army and navy, has the supreme
executive power and can appoint and dismiss ministers, can
prorogue Parliament but not for longer than two months, and can
dissolve Parliament. The King may issue regulations and order
measures, having the obligatory force of laws, whenever the State
is threatened with immediate internal or external danger. All such
measures, however, must be adopted by the Cabinet Council, and
entail the collective responsibility of all the ministers. They must be
submitted to the approval of the National Assembly in the course
of its earliest session. A special section of the Constitution expressly
forbids the levying, by means of such extraordinary regulations, of
new taxes or duties, the National Assembly having alone the right to
impose them.
2. The National Assembly, elected by manhood suffrage through
a secret ballot. Every deputy has the right to make propositions
and to introduce bills, if he is supported by one-fourth of the
members present. The National Assembly may amend the bills and
propositions introduced by the Government. The deputies have the
right to make interpellations. By means of this, the deputies can force
individual ministers or the entire Government to explain their line
of conduct and to state their intentions on some special matter, or as
regards their general policy. The National Assembly may appoint
commissions of inquiry or institute inquiries as regards the conduct
of the Government. It may submit to the Crown special addresses.
There is no Upper House, but for special occasions a “Grand
National Assembly” is convoked. This has the same composition as
the ordinary National Assembly, and its members are elected in the
same way. The only difference between the two is that the number of
members of a Grand National Assembly is twice that of the ordinary
National Assembly, every electoral unit of 20,000 inhabitants sending
two deputies instead of one. The Grand National Assembly may
decide only those matters which have necessitated its convocation. A
Grand National Assembly is called in the following cases:
1. To decide questions of exchanging or ceding a portion of the
territory of Bulgaria.