17
TOWARDS STABILIZING THE CONDITIONS FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT?
amending and supplementing local self-
government and local administration, and
a Law on the administrative and territorial
structure of the Republic of Bulgaria. Their
aim is to better balance the interests of the
state, regions and municipalities, and to
enhance local self-government. Special at-
tention should be devoted to the existing
disproportions in the development of indi-
vidual regions, border and mountain re-
gions, as well as the large number of mu-
nicipalities that are in dire need. Irrespec-
tive of all these efforts the regional policy
still needs a clear-cut balancing of priori-
ties and specific programmes for regional
development.
The analysis of political changes in
recent years clearly shows that the demo-
cratic political institutions are being gradu-
ally strengthened, and the principles of
democratic political life are being affirmed.
It also shows that the major winning strat-
egy of political life in the country is that
which relies on unification around the na-
tional interests.
1.3. Contradictions in culture
The lengthy crisis processes in the
economy and politics are accompanied and
intensified by cultural disorientations and
tensions. According to the sociological sur-
veys held every year after the changed be-
gan, a stable number of one-third of adult
Bulgarians (26.6% in June 1995) maintain
that the inability to distinguish between
good and evil
is a very grave problem for
Bulgaria. Yet most lastingly and intensively
people determine crime as a very grave
problem. Against the background of
pauperization of large groups of people and
of influential traditional egalitarian atti-
tudes, the growing sensitivity to the quick
rich-poor stratification of society is too
natural. In the changing economic, politi-
cal and cultural situation the assessments
of the importance of other problems, such
as political confrontation and ethnic ten-
sions become less intensive as dominants
of the cultural situation (See Fig. 1.4.).
Cultural disorientation, disappoint-
ment with and
distrust in major social in-
stitutions reached their lowest level in 1994.
The public opinion
polls held at this time
established highly negative attitudes to-
wards the main processes and institutions
in the country. A period of relative cultural
stabilization followed. This can best be
witnessed by the distribution of assessments
whether the country is moving in the right
direction. Within a couple of months only
The winning political
strategy is that of
national interests
Mass consciousness is
dominated by anxiety
and insecurity
How do you live in June 1995 as compared to years before
1989 (national sample, in %)
Figure 1.3.
Table 1.5.
Political affiliation of elected mayors and share of the
population in these municipalities (local elections held in
October-November 1995)
Mayors
%
Population %
BSP and coalition
196
76.7
62.9
UDF and coalition
12
4.7
27.4
Movement for Rights and Freedoms
26
10.2
6.2
Popular Alliance - BAU, DP
3
1.2
0.4
Bulgarian Business Bloc2
0.8
0.3
Dupnitsa Democratic Coalition
1
0.4
0.7
BCP
1
0.4
0.1
Independent
14
5.49
2.1
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT ! BULGARIA 1996
18
this distribution sizeably changed and criti-
cal assessments became less sharp. The
explanation is that a prospect for social
development more acceptable for wide-
spread cultural orientations has taken
shape. The complex nature of the histori-
cal problem situation can be evidenced by
the fact that nearly every third adult Bul-
garian finds it difficult to make assessments:
In the conditions of continuing social
and economic changes the dynamics of
cultural orientations is high. It depends on
numerous internal and external factors. The
potential disturbances of the fragile eco-
nomic and political stability can easily grow
again into a widespread cultural pessimism.
The lasting impoverishment of large groups
and mass insecurity in every-day life, per-
taining to the high crime rate, are persis-
tent factors for negative cultural orienta-
tions.
Cultural insecurity is also maintained
by contradicting processes in the very struc-
ture of fundamental values and norms of
Bulgarian society. In the first half of the
nineties, parallel with private entrepreneur-
ship and political democratization, the prin-
ciples of individualist ethics became quickly
established in it. Some extremities of the
market individualism and destruction of in-
stitutions that embody and protect the
commom good, have nurtured traditional
anti-individualist attitudes. The affirmation
of universal values collided with blatant in-
stances of pursuing individual and group
interests in economy and politics. The re-
sult was a sharp clash between traditional-
ist and modernist, between individualist
and collectivist cultural orientations.
Only conditionally can this contradic-
tion be reduced to a clash between tradi-
tional rural collectivist culture and mod-
ern urban individualist culture. Yet there
is an indisputable fact: the cultural assess-
ments of major processes in Bulgarian so-
ciety widespread in villages and small towns
essentially differ from assessments of the
same processes
current in the capital and
big cities. This becomes evident from the
distribution of assessments about the rapid
income stratification of Bulgarian society
(See Fig. 1.6).
These substantial differences in ma-
jor cultural orientations and assessments
can be explained by age and educational
differences, specific ways of life and pecu-
liarities of the local economic and political
environment. Whatever the reasons, these
Dynamics of major problems in the mass consciousness 1992-
1995 (national surveys, position A very grave problem, in %)
Figure 1.4.
Had the society been moving in the right direction in the last
few years? (national surveys, October 1994
and June 1995, in %)
Figure 1.5.
Traditional and
modern values clash in
culture