Pub Date : 2020-07-20DOI: 10.30965/18763332-04402003
D. Bechev
This article discusses Bulgaria’s geopolitical predicament and its impact on the country’s political development since 1989. It looks at Bulgaria’s accession to the EU and nato in the 1990s and 2000s, its role in both institutions, as well as at its relations with Russia and Turkey. The article contends that the state’s position – on the margins of the European institutional and spatial order – informs its response to major international players. At the same time, the article also finds that, rather than being simply a target of external action, Bulgaria has exercised a fair amount of agency in navigating politics at the regional and international level.
{"title":"Living on the Periphery","authors":"D. Bechev","doi":"10.30965/18763332-04402003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763332-04402003","url":null,"abstract":"This article discusses Bulgaria’s geopolitical predicament and its impact on the country’s political development since 1989. It looks at Bulgaria’s accession to the EU and nato in the 1990s and 2000s, its role in both institutions, as well as at its relations with Russia and Turkey. The article contends that the state’s position – on the margins of the European institutional and spatial order – informs its response to major international players. At the same time, the article also finds that, rather than being simply a target of external action, Bulgaria has exercised a fair amount of agency in navigating politics at the regional and international level.","PeriodicalId":43126,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69267996","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-07-20DOI: 10.30965/18763332-04402010
Natalija Dimić
{"title":"A History of Yugoslavia, written by Marie-Janine Calic","authors":"Natalija Dimić","doi":"10.30965/18763332-04402010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763332-04402010","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43126,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.30965/18763332-04402010","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49112967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-07-20DOI: 10.30965/18763332-04402001
G. Dimitrov
The goal of this introduction is to outline the general thematic and interpretative scene wherein the next eight authors will elaborate in greater depth on more concrete issues. That is why this text mostly aims to review and rethink the achievements and problems of the local understanding of Bulgarian society in the last decades.
{"title":"Bulgarian Society at the Turn of the 21st Century – a Cognitive Challenge","authors":"G. Dimitrov","doi":"10.30965/18763332-04402001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763332-04402001","url":null,"abstract":"The goal of this introduction is to outline the general thematic and interpretative scene wherein the next eight authors will elaborate in greater depth on more concrete issues. That is why this text mostly aims to review and rethink the achievements and problems of the local understanding of Bulgarian society in the last decades.","PeriodicalId":43126,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45722314","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-07-20DOI: 10.30965/18763332-04402004
A. Krasteva, Anton T Todorov
The analysis starts from a key question: how many transformations did post-communism, which came as a promise and project for one transformation, actually carry out? This article is a conceptual, not an event narrative about the transformations of democratization. Its theoretical ambition is threefold. The first aim is to develop a new analytical model for the study of transformations based on the concept of ‘symbolic-ideological hegemony’ and a matrix of two pairs of indicators. The first pair reflects the intentionality of the change and examines the (non-)existence of an explicitly formulated political project as well as its (self-)designation by elites and citizens. The second pair of indicators concerns agency and covers the supply side and the demand side, the perspective and role of elites, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the perspective and role of citizens. The other ambitions of the study are to identify the key transformations in Bulgaria’s three-decade-long post-communist development – a democratic, a (national) populist, and a post-democratic one, and to analyze them in a comparative perspective.
{"title":"From Post-Communism to Post-Democracy","authors":"A. Krasteva, Anton T Todorov","doi":"10.30965/18763332-04402004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763332-04402004","url":null,"abstract":"The analysis starts from a key question: how many transformations did post-communism, which came as a promise and project for one transformation, actually carry out? This article is a conceptual, not an event narrative about the transformations of democratization. Its theoretical ambition is threefold. The first aim is to develop a new analytical model for the study of transformations based on the concept of ‘symbolic-ideological hegemony’ and a matrix of two pairs of indicators. The first pair reflects the intentionality of the change and examines the (non-)existence of an explicitly formulated political project as well as its (self-)designation by elites and citizens. The second pair of indicators concerns agency and covers the supply side and the demand side, the perspective and role of elites, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the perspective and role of citizens. The other ambitions of the study are to identify the key transformations in Bulgaria’s three-decade-long post-communist development – a democratic, a (national) populist, and a post-democratic one, and to analyze them in a comparative perspective.","PeriodicalId":43126,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41380841","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-07-20DOI: 10.30965/18763332-04402005
Petya Kabakchieva
This article analyses the emergence and development of different forms of civil society in Bulgaria from the late 1980s to the present day, focusing on ngos and the large anti-government protests in 1989–1991, 1997, and 2013–2014. It shows that civil society has been developing in ebbs and flows, its main actors having alt-civic and fake doubles: nationalist movements and fake counter-protests. Recent developments indicate a clear trend of transition from representative to direct democracy, which coincides with the populist orientation of most parties. This coincidence is dangerous because populist parties, following the romantic tradition, reinvented the figure of “the people” as traditionalistic, nationalistic, and conservative. “Civil society,” seen as “alien,” was constructed as an enemy of “the people.” The author argues that defending the pluralistic values of civil society against the thus-invented “people,” is the main challenge to democracy in Bulgaria today.
{"title":"From Representative to Anti-Civic Populist Democracy?","authors":"Petya Kabakchieva","doi":"10.30965/18763332-04402005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763332-04402005","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses the emergence and development of different forms of civil society in Bulgaria from the late 1980s to the present day, focusing on ngos and the large anti-government protests in 1989–1991, 1997, and 2013–2014. It shows that civil society has been developing in ebbs and flows, its main actors having alt-civic and fake doubles: nationalist movements and fake counter-protests. Recent developments indicate a clear trend of transition from representative to direct democracy, which coincides with the populist orientation of most parties. This coincidence is dangerous because populist parties, following the romantic tradition, reinvented the figure of “the people” as traditionalistic, nationalistic, and conservative. “Civil society,” seen as “alien,” was constructed as an enemy of “the people.” The author argues that defending the pluralistic values of civil society against the thus-invented “people,” is the main challenge to democracy in Bulgaria today.","PeriodicalId":43126,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46768574","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-07-20DOI: 10.30965/18763332-04402012
Tamara Banjeglav
{"title":"International Courts and Mass Atrocity: Narratives of War and Justice in Croatia, written by Ivor Sokolić","authors":"Tamara Banjeglav","doi":"10.30965/18763332-04402012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763332-04402012","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43126,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45815435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-07-20DOI: 10.30965/18763332-04402007
G. Ganev
Based on an analytical narrative, and utilizing macroeconomic and new institutional economic theory, this exposition studies the Bulgarian economy during the decades after 1989. The three decades are placed in the context of the century-and-a-half-long Bulgarian development and convergence dynamic. They are then presented in terms of clearly defined sub-periods, and each sub-period is analyzed in detail. The analysis for each period focuses on three sets of issues: macroeconomic developments, microeconomic developments, and institutional changes. The exposition ends by applying the insights from the analysis to the question of whether the state of the economy in Bulgaria as of 2019 gives grounds for pessimism (Bulgaria will continue the cycles of unsuccessful convergence) or for optimism (Bulgaria will achieve an unprecedented degree of convergence in the coming decades). The answer is that at present both expectations can be supported by sets of serious arguments.
{"title":"Bulgaria’s Economy 1989–2019","authors":"G. Ganev","doi":"10.30965/18763332-04402007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763332-04402007","url":null,"abstract":"Based on an analytical narrative, and utilizing macroeconomic and new institutional economic theory, this exposition studies the Bulgarian economy during the decades after 1989. The three decades are placed in the context of the century-and-a-half-long Bulgarian development and convergence dynamic. They are then presented in terms of clearly defined sub-periods, and each sub-period is analyzed in detail. The analysis for each period focuses on three sets of issues: macroeconomic developments, microeconomic developments, and institutional changes. The exposition ends by applying the insights from the analysis to the question of whether the state of the economy in Bulgaria as of 2019 gives grounds for pessimism (Bulgaria will continue the cycles of unsuccessful convergence) or for optimism (Bulgaria will achieve an unprecedented degree of convergence in the coming decades). The answer is that at present both expectations can be supported by sets of serious arguments.","PeriodicalId":43126,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41836431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-07-20DOI: 10.30965/18763332-04402011
Christina Koulouri
{"title":"Framing the Nation and Collective Identity in Croatia: Political Rituals and Cultural Memory of Twentieth-Century Traumas, edited by Vjeran Pavlaković and Davor Pauković","authors":"Christina Koulouri","doi":"10.30965/18763332-04402011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763332-04402011","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43126,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.30965/18763332-04402011","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43641535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-07-20DOI: 10.30965/18763332-04402006
V. Todorova
This article discusses to what extent Bulgaria has attempted to establish the Rule of Law in recent years and the reasons this aim has remain unattained. It outlines the “peripheral status” of law in Bulgarian society because of the society’s unaccomplished modernization. Next, the manifestation of deficiencies in the development of the Rule of Law is analyzed following Martin Mendelski’s conceptual model (de jure and de facto legality), in particular, in relation to the fight against corruption. The analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative evidence from the Legal Barometer project and the Study of Legislative Activity of the 44th National Assembly. The empirical facts prove that the state mostly produces legal texts and creates administrative structures (in its anti-corruption reforms as well), but not actual results in legal defence of human rights, property rights and in defence of public interests in general.
{"title":"The Rule of Law in Bulgaria","authors":"V. Todorova","doi":"10.30965/18763332-04402006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763332-04402006","url":null,"abstract":"This article discusses to what extent Bulgaria has attempted to establish the Rule of Law in recent years and the reasons this aim has remain unattained. It outlines the “peripheral status” of law in Bulgarian society because of the society’s unaccomplished modernization. Next, the manifestation of deficiencies in the development of the Rule of Law is analyzed following Martin Mendelski’s conceptual model (de jure and de facto legality), in particular, in relation to the fight against corruption. The analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative evidence from the Legal Barometer project and the Study of Legislative Activity of the 44th National Assembly. The empirical facts prove that the state mostly produces legal texts and creates administrative structures (in its anti-corruption reforms as well), but not actual results in legal defence of human rights, property rights and in defence of public interests in general.","PeriodicalId":43126,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41387507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-07-20DOI: 10.30965/18763332-04402002
A. Dimitrova
This article argues that the EU’s enlargement negotiations with Eastern European applicants have become possible to a large extent by the introduction of objective assessment by the Commission, which allowed integration to proceed despite the threat of deadlock. The process of negotiations and preparation, however, should be better seen as a constant switching between the technical parts of the acquis and their (potential) political consequences. These arguments are developed in an analysis of Bulgaria’s path to accession. The analysis shows that in the domestic arena, the same tensions between the seemingly technical character of the negotiations and their political implications and consequences can be observed. The article will argue that while the emphasis on objective criteria and technical issues obscured the potential political consequences and effects on various sectors of the economy and society, stalled reforms in public administration or the judiciary belonged to the realm of its unintended consequences. Rule of law did not reform significantly despite the introduction of a special tool of political conditionality, the EU’s Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (cvm). The politicization of issues changed over time, with some measures affecting political cleavages more than a decade after Bulgaria’s accession.
{"title":"Enlargement by Stealth?","authors":"A. Dimitrova","doi":"10.30965/18763332-04402002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30965/18763332-04402002","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues that the EU’s enlargement negotiations with Eastern European applicants have become possible to a large extent by the introduction of objective assessment by the Commission, which allowed integration to proceed despite the threat of deadlock. The process of negotiations and preparation, however, should be better seen as a constant switching between the technical parts of the acquis and their (potential) political consequences. These arguments are developed in an analysis of Bulgaria’s path to accession. The analysis shows that in the domestic arena, the same tensions between the seemingly technical character of the negotiations and their political implications and consequences can be observed. The article will argue that while the emphasis on objective criteria and technical issues obscured the potential political consequences and effects on various sectors of the economy and society, stalled reforms in public administration or the judiciary belonged to the realm of its unintended consequences. Rule of law did not reform significantly despite the introduction of a special tool of political conditionality, the EU’s Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (cvm). The politicization of issues changed over time, with some measures affecting political cleavages more than a decade after Bulgaria’s accession.","PeriodicalId":43126,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2020-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.30965/18763332-04402002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41442621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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