National-level democratic elections throughout 20 years of post-communist life in Bulgaria: Attitudes and perceptions about change

Abstract

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the question arises as to what extent life in post-communist countries has significantly changed, and in what sense. The wide diversity of societies in the region offers numerous responses. This article focuses on the reality of Bulgaria today, which is of particular interest due to its particular path of development within the frame of the Balkans and Eastern Europe as a whole. We argue that the persistent difficulties in Bulgaria have led to feelings of despair which are ultimately reflected in the electoral behaviour of the country’s citizens. Electoral outcomes are used to explore the perceptions of Bulgarian citizens throughout the current democratic period. In this paper we test the validity of three hypotheses, namely that the motivations of Bulgarian voters are based on a cost-benefit analysis as proposed in rational choice theory; social differences underlie Bulgarian citizens’ electoral behaviour; and the novel and atypical electoral options that have successfully emerged in the Bulgarian political arena show a certain degree of continuity with regard to their corresponding sociodemographic bases. To achieve our goals, we rely on three types of analyses: contextual, correlation and linear regression, with the enduring economic crisis as a backdrop.