The constitution exhibits an image of legislative supremacy asserting that power belongs to the people and is exercised through such elected representative bodies as the National Assembly and the people's councils. The practice, however, shows executive political hegemony exercised by the party leadership occupying positions of governmental responsibility, such as the head of the Council of Ministers and head of the State Council. The power exercised by a government organ is directly linked to the party positions held by its head and by its members. For example, Todor Zhivkov as president of the State Council (a position that automatically makes him president of the republic) is at the same time first secretary of the party and a member of its Politburo. Stanko Todorov, who is chairman of the Council of Ministers and thereby premier of the republic, is also a member of the Politburo. Several other members of the State Council and the Council of Ministers are concurrently members of the Politburo, the Secretariat, or the Central Committee. This interlocking of positions, which occurs not only at the national level but at all levels, ensures party control of the entire governmental system (see fig. 6).
The source of executive direction and control in the government is the State Council, a twenty-four-man executive committee within the National Assembly elected for an indefinite term until a new National Assembly elects a new council. It functions as a collegial executive and legislative body, and its president assumes the title of president of the People's Republic of Bulgaria.
The State Council of the National Assembly replaced the former presidium, to which the 1947 Constitution had given honorific titles but largely ceremonial functions. Conceived during a plenum of the party Central Committee in 1968 but not established until after the promulgation of the new constitution in 1971, the State Council was designed to be a powerful force, both executive and legislative, in the overall governmental structure. The best evidence to the power inherent in the structure of the new State Council was the fact that party leader Zhivkov chose to relinquish the premiership, which he had held for several years, in favor of the newly created position of president of the State Council. Zhivkov is one of a very few leaders of communist countries who continues to retain the top position in both the party and the government.