THE TRANSFORMATION OF BULGARIAN POLITICAL CULTURE IN THE PROCESS OF TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY (A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE DOMINANT POLITICAL CULTURE AND THE YOUTH POLITICAL SUBCULTURE)

Abstract

During the last 25 years of democratic transition Bulgaria succeeded in partially overcoming some of the major transitional issues concerning the institutional and market transformation but many basic problems mostly related with the way institutions function still persist. All the governments since 1989 have come to power promising prosperity but nearly all of them end their mandate with social trust, close to zero. This paper argues that one of the factors which prevent the establishment of functioning democratic socio-political institutions is political culture. Attitudes of the youth towards politics define the priorities of state and will determine whether the country will continue to develop democratically. This study examines some basic political attitudes and tries to find if there are differences between the dominant political culture in Bulgaria and the political culture of youth.

Keywords: democracy, transition, political culture, youth subculture