The following is a slightly revised selection from chapter 4 of Veronika Stoyanova’s recent book Ideology and Social Protests in Eastern Europe: Beyond the Transition’s Liberal Consensus (London: Routledge, 2018). Stoyanova traces discursive developments during the final years of Communist Party rule in Bulgaria and the radical transformations that followed, when the concept of civil society played a central role in emerging justifications of democracy, market reforms, and a certain kind of anti-populist elitism.