ations who are not members of the ruling elite. It
includes administrators, managers, professionals, technicians, and all
categories of white-collar personnel. Next to the working class, this
has been the fastest growing social group. As a result, most of its
members are relatively young, and their social origins represent the
entire spectrum of precommunist society. Within the middle class further
differentiation is made in terms of income and prestige between persons
in the upper levels of management and the professions, who have a higher
education and those in the lower levels of technical and white-collar
employment, who have only a secondary education. The group as a whole
probably constitutes almost 20 percent of the population. The relative
size of the upper and lower levels was not known, although the lower
level was probably larger.

At the top of the social pyramid is the small ruling elite composed of
the top leadership of the party, government, security forces, mass
organizations, and the various branches of the economy. The ruling elite
also includes members of the cultural and intellectual elite who, by
virtue of their political loyalty and willingness to serve the regime,
share in the privileges usually reserved to the top leadership. By
lending their talents to the party cause, however, these individuals
often lose some of the prestige and deference traditionally enjoyed by
the intellectual elite. The main criterion for membership in the ruling
elite is power derived from approved ideological orientation and
political manipulation. Most members come from peasant or worker
families and are veterans of the communist movement of the interwar
period. Membership in the ruling elite is accompanied by considerable
insecurity because it is highly dependent on political loyalty and
correct interpretation of ideology. A change in official policy can
deprive a member of his status and of all his privileges.

Since the end of World War II, Bulgarian society has been extremely
mobile. Industrialization and socialization of the economy have created
thousands of new blue- and white-collar jobs. The attendant increase in
educational opportunities has made it possible for individuals to gain
the skill and background required to fill these jobs and, thereby, move
up the social ladder. This mobility has been aided by the government's
determined effort to reshuffle society by improving the social status
and opportunities o