Why is parliamentary democracy in Bulgaria not functioning properly? This question is asked by historian Dr. Alexander Stoyanov in an extensive analysis shared on the show "THE DAY with Vesselin Dremdzhiev". The author identifies four main reasons for the dysfunctionality of the system and connects them with the country's historical heritage.
"Anyone who has watched elections in our country in recent years is aware that parliamentary democracy in our country is not functioning properly, and often not at all," Stoyanov begins his analysis.
According to the historian, there are four direct reasons for the problems. The first is the lack of political activity - a two-way process in which the population abdicates its constitutional rights, and the parties renounce the majority of the people.
The second reason is the lack of parliamentary traditions. Stoyanov emphasizes that the Fifth Bulgarian State (since 1989) is the first in which the National Assembly performs the function of the main political body. "Many of the Parliaments have been dissolved without serving their full term," he notes.
The third reason is the complete lack of a clear political ideology among all political forces. "Concepts such as "right" and "left" have little value in a system in which we should rather talk about liberal and conservative," explains the author.
The fourth reason is the fusion of the gray sector with politics, which Stoyanov defines as kleptocracy - a trend characteristic of the entire post-Soviet space.
The analysis traces the roots of these problems in Bulgarian history. According to Stoyanov, the lack of political activity is rooted in the habits of Bulgarians born before 1980, formed by the doctrine of the Bulgarian Communist Party for the elections between 1946-1989.
"It is much easier to 'go for mushrooms' than to make a conscious vote in front of the machines," he comments on the attitude towards voting.
The author pays particular attention to the education system. "Kleptocracy consciously seeks to destroy a responsible society by purposefully degrading the educational system and culture," Stoyanov warns.
The analysis examines the formation of kleptocracy in Bulgaria in the most detail. According to the author, the Bulgarian Communist Party follows the Soviet model and by 1970 turned the gray sector into an unregulated source of income for the party elite.
In the 1980s, the party elite began building a power layer through sports clubs, from which the "fighters" were born - the future controllers of the gray sector in the 1990s.
"At the beginning of the new century, Simeon, brought in with red money, legalized through the Ministry of Interior the purge of those "scumbags" who had allowed themselves to play outside the symbiosis of kleptocracy," describes the process Stoyanov.
The conclusion of the analysis is pessimistic. "Adequate reforms and changes in our country in the foreseeable future are impossible," warns the historian.
"Our children and grandchildren will still pay the price of our contemporary inaction, long after everyone who reads these lines has left here - directly and figuratively," he concludes his analysis.
According to Stoyanov, the Bulgarian political system operates at the level of the first half of the 19th century, and external dependencies and corruption make it impossible to modernize it.