A Patchy Democracy

Bulgaria's Peacemeal Efforts to Cope with the Last Thirty Years

20 January 2020

Spasimir Domaradzki

Visegrad Insight Fellow

After thirty years, Bulgarian politics requires the reinvention of checks and balances, the division of powers and judiciary independence. At best, its mechanisms and ability to adapt to external and internal pressures make it a patchy democracy.

Upon landing in Sofia, the first impression tells it all about Bulgaria’s thirty years after transition. The new airport terminal 2 welcomes you with its jet bridges and wide corridors, offering a common standard among the better airports worldwide. The airport is well connected with the city through a new metro line, bus and relatively cheap taxis. The main road to the city centre is smooth and with no lights, as it has been since the 1980s.

On the way to the city centre, the modern glass and steel architecture interweaves with the communist-era apartment housings, which remain the living memory of the last thirty years.

A longer gaze at these communist relic buildings reveals three of the most characteristic aspects of the Bulgarian thirty years. What was once an emanation of material equality, these housings now epitomise post-communist inequality.

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Spasimir Domaradzki

Visegrad Insight Fellow

Visegrad Insight Fellow. Researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies of the University of Warsaw and Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Lazarski University in Warsaw.

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