This book examines the influence of authoritarian rule on the development of the welfare state. Building on theoretical approaches from research on autocratic regimes and comparative welfare state research, it develops a novel theoretical argument on authoritarian pension policy. In a case study focusing on the development of the public pension system in Bulgaria during more than a century of authoritarian rule (1879–1989), it shows that distinct types of authoritarian regimes have different impact on the institutional design of the public pension system depending on their specific patterns of legitimation and ideological orientations.