So far, I have tried to paint a picture of the political climate in Bulgaria. One that shows distrust, discontent and hopelessness amongst our society towards the ruling government.
However, these feelings all stem from the socioeconomic inequalities created by that same government. Persson (2010) states that a high level of inequality in a society negatively affects political participation. In egalitarian societies the levels of social cohesion are higher which supposedly increases individuals’ willingness to participate in political activities. Well i can tell you that the Bulgarian society and its rulers are everything but egalitarian.
Take for instance GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria), Bulgaria’s largest populist party known for being involved in numerous corruption scandals and deemed controversial, famous for achieving no progress in any of the sectors the party made empty promises to improve.
Therefore, this blog will further examine the link between inequalities, political participation and what is the key to political power.
First from Hoskins (2019) theory of social reproduction (and my last blog) we know that education plays a pivotal role in the distribution of inequalities within our society. We know that with higher education, individuals show more interest in political participation (figures in my last blog) .
If you could choose, what education level would you like to complete? (%) (Mitev,2014)
We can see in this graph that people do have interest and willingnessto learn as it shows that 2/3 of Bulgaria’s youth want to obtain higher education. However, the introduction of tuition fees coincided with the mass impoverishment of the population since the 1990s (Mitev, 2014). The dynamic of the clash between educational aspirations and affordability can be seen in Figure 2.
Financial difficulties in obtaining desired education (%) (Mitev, 2014)
Here we can see the drastic increase in financial difficulties after 1995 due to hyperinflation and the collapse of the financial system in Bulgarian, and that crisis was followed by many more. As a result,finding money for education is difficult for 48% of the respondents from villages, 45% from small towns, 32% from regional centres, and 29% from Sofia (Mitev, 2014).
This brings me onto the next inequality and that is the economic one. Hoskins (2019) examines social reproduction in terms of household incomes, earnings, employment/unemployment, education and wealth. Basically, the social reproduction of money, status and power.
THE KEY TO POLITICAL POWER
Weber (1946) described three important ways modern societies are graded and stratifies. He identified economic classes, social status groups, and political authority groups such as political parties and interest groups. Weber argued that income, status, and political authority provide individuals with economic, social, or political power that they can use to satisfy their needs and achieve their goals.
A well used practice by our politicians- MONEY AND POWER ABOVE ALL.
Lets further examine the economy of Bulgaria.
(Inequality and Poverty trends, Tsanov, 2013)
From this statistic we can conclude a steep rise in poverty and Gini (measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income or wealth distribution of a nation’s residents, and is the most commonly used measurement of Inequality, Gini, 1912 ). We now get the sense that things are not looking great, but how does this translate into politics?
Percentage of votes for the winners in elections and inequality, 1990-2009, (Tsanov, 2013)
From this graph we can see the correlation between voting (on average 40%) for the winning parties (left and right) from 1990 to 2009 and the percentage of Gini (unequal wealth distribution/ the black line) within these findings. Simply put, inequalities grew throughout the decades, whereas political participation decreased.
Economy and social mobility are important topics when measuring the index of how much opportunity a society provides to its members and how well it rewards innovation and hard work (Brady, 2014). Social reproduction encompasses the transmission of economic resources, human capital, and social capital in the form of social networks.
The last socioeconomic inequality this blog will look at are family relations and how they influence political participation.
Since the 1990s, it seemed that the dialogue between generations had become very difficult or even impossible. It is true that discussions of politics in the family are not frequent (those who reported that they “never” or “rarely” have such discussions are 59% in Bulgaria, this is due above all to the overall low interest in politics (Mitev, 2014).
The level of correspondence between the political views of young people
and parents, however, is increased by the parents’ educational attainment.
There is a correspondence (complete or partial) of views among two-thirds of the respondents whose parents have a Master’s Degree, and among half of those whose parents have a Bachelor’s Degree. Among respondents whose parents have primary education this share is slightly over one-third. In other words, the differences in views are determined less by generation than by parents’ education level (Mitev,2013)
Alright, so far we know that education is pivotal in regards to political participation, on the other hand economy and wealth are the factors that influence the accessibility of obtaining education. Further, the economic state in which the Bulgarian society desperately dwells in directly correlates to voting (numerous voting scandals like fabrications and vote-buying) and political participation in relation to Weber- whoever has the money and political power is invincible.
Remember, GERB, the political party responsible for Bulgaria’s current disastrous economy ? Well, because of its populist nature GERB has managed to thrive whilst condemning its people to misery and poverty.
And there you have it – THE KEY TO POLITICAL POWER!
1.Create socioeconomic inequalities
- high tuition fees and 0 Citizenship classes
- lowest minimum wage in EU- €312
- low wealth distribution and GINI coefficient
2. Create your own rules
- corruption
- vote- buying and fabrication
- vulnerable to populism
AND THE KEY FOR FREEDOM from all of the above ? Better education, economy and government officials?
Well, i am still looking for the answers…IN MY NEXT BLOG!
References
Brady, H. E., Schlozman, K. L., & Verba, S. (2014). Political Mobility and Political Reproduction from Generation to Generation. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 657(1), 149–173. doi:10.1177/0002716214550587
Gini, Corrado (1912). Variabilità e mutabilità. Reprinted in Pizetti, E.; Salvemini, T., eds. (1955). Memorie di metodologica statistica. Rome: Libreria Eredi Virgilio Veschi.
Hoskins, B. & Janmaat, J. G. (2019). Education, Democracy and Inequality. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-48976-0 Accessed: [05.03.20]
Mitev, P. & Kovacheva, S. (2014) Young people in European Bulgaria. A Sociological Portrait. Friedrich Ebert Foundation: Sofia, Bulgaria. Available at: https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/sofia/12569.pdf Accessed: [04.03.20]
Persson, M. (2010) The Effects of Economic and Educational Inequality on
Political Participation. University of Gothenburg. Available at: https://ecpr.eu/Filestore/PaperProposal/a47c0359-276e-4a48-9c16-c46bd345968d.pdf Accessed [18.04.2020]
Tsanov, V. (2013) GROWING INEQUALITY AND ITSIMPACTS: Bulgaria and Romania. Amsterdam. Available at: http://gini-research.org/system/uploads/486/original/8_-_Tsanov.pdf?1372263618 Accessed: [19.04.2020]
Weber, Max. 1946. Class, status, and party. In From Max Weber, trans. Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills,180–95. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.