Paul Edwards and Dr. Vanya Illieva Kalaidjieva, Political Science
The research I did ultimately seeks to answer the question whether the door to the West is open for Bulgaria. Bulgaria is not a Western country, even though it is in Europe. In fact it has never been a Western country.
During its fifteen centuries of existence, this small Balkan country had always chosen a path that led in a direction opposite from the direction the West was going. Therefore, the country developed traditions and perceptions which were counterproductive to receiving, and acting in accordance with Western legal reform.
For my qualitative study, I sought and read all articles I found in American law journals, pertaining to my topic; I looked for, bought, and read relevant books through Amazon.com on the web; led a field research in Bulgaria, interviewed a prominent attorney and Professor of Law, an attorney and a member of the United Democratic Forces Party, as well as many Bulgarians and Americans living in Bulgaria; read Bulgarian news on the web daily; and researched web sites about Bulgaria. All of these activities resulted in a thirty-page paper, in which I attempted to explain why Bulgaria is lagging behind the rest of the other former communist countries.
To find out why Bulgaria is not developing economically as fast as other Eastern block countries, I accepted Kathryn Hendley’s hypothesis, which states that in the basis of sound economic policy and success of a country’s economy lies the extent to which certain legal principles, found in the Western legal tradition, are accepted by a country. These principles are reciprocity, procedural regularity, substantive legitimacy, efficacy of law, independent judiciary, and accessibility of the legal system. By studying these dependent for my study variables, I found out that Bulgaria’s laws are in accordance with Western standards, but that the attitude and thinking of Bulgarians differs. These differences I attributed to my independent variables, and mainly, to the influence religion has on the popular culture of Bulgarians.
The research I conducted had interesting for me results. I always knew that Bulgaria was not developing as fast as other Eastern European countries, but suspected that this was mainly because of Bulgaria’s close relations with Russia. Because the country was known for being the former Soviet Union’s closer satellite, Bulgaria has been struggling economically after the fall of communism. According to my research, however, the problem goes much further in Bulgarian history that the period of forty-five year communism.
The number one problem for Bulgaria’s lag, according to my findings, is the acceptance of Orthodoxy instead of Catholicism in 863 A.D. The Catholic tradition is associated with the West. It is in fact what makes the West Western. Further, he Roman cannon law gave rise to the Western legal tradition; it laid the basis of constitutionalism and the protection of human rights. Lastly, Catholicism promoted individualism and gave rise to a commitment to individual freedom that now distinguishes the West from other civilizations. The West is truly a unique source of the “ideas of individual liberty, political democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and cultural freedom” (Schlesinger 1992, 127). By accepting Eastern Orthodoxy, Bulgaria in a way accepted being non-Western. Thus, the values and traditions of hard-work, democracy, individual freedom, and respect for human rights were always foreign for most Bulgarians.
The country desires to join the institutions associated with the West, NATO and the European Union, in more particular, but it is not able to do that because of inborn suspicion towards law, laziness, superstitions which often supersede rationality and soundness, and other remnants of Bulgaria’s Orthodox past.
Further, the characteristics that Bulgaria’s unique history imposed on the people of the country, are another impediment for Bulgaria accepting Western law. A five-hundred year domination by Ottoman Turkey became a tradition of nihilism and a tradition of law disobedience. This tradition was carried through communism, when law was basically non-existent. It is hard for Bulgarians, therefore, to accept, believe and trust law. Legal representatives prove to be the best examples of the above observation.
Inasmuch as my paper defines the problem Bulgaria is facing, it does not attempt to solve it. Believing that the reason why Bulgaria lags in its transition from communism lies in the country’s past, I conclude that the solution can be found only in time and in the successor generations of well educated young people.
References:
- Schlesinger, Arthur H. 1992. The disunity of America. New York: W. W. Norton.