Table of Contents

Chapter One: Thirty Years of Bulgarian Democracy: Lessons (Partly) Learned

Petia Kostadinova



Part I: The National Electoral Process

Chapter Two: Direct Democracy and Electoral System Reform

Tanya Bagashka



Chapter Three: Preferential Voting and Party Loyalty: How Bulgarian Voters Respond to Parties’ Choices­

Tatiana Kostadinova



Chapter Four: Representation Trends in Pledge Making: Do Election Promises Reflect Distinctions between Political Parties in Bulgaria?

Petia Kostadinova



Chapter Five: State Capture: A Crippling Political Affliction and the Search for Antidotes

Stoycho P. Stoychev



Part II: Civil Society

Chapter Six: Bulgarian Populist Nationalism on Digital Steroids: The Case of Siderov’s Ataka Party

Elza Ibroscheva and Maria Stover



Chapter Seven: The Permutations of Bulgarian Citizens and Migration Post-1989

Maria Stoilkova



Chapter Eight: Digital Media and the Thinning Out of Civic Activism: Empowerment/Disempowerment of the Savvy Few

Maria Bakardjieva and Kjell Engelbrekt



Part III: The European Context

Chapter Nine: The Role of Civil Society in EU Policy Implementation in Bulgaria

Asya Zhelyazkova and Reini Schrama



Chapter Ten: When Anti-establishment and Euroscepticism Converge: Bulgarian Party Politics 2001-2019

Dragomir Stoyanov and Plamen Ralchev



Chapter Eleven: The Post-Communist Judiciary: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Maria Popova



Chapter Twelve: Concluding Thoughts

Kjell Engelbrekt

About the Author

Petia Kostadinova is associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Kjell Engelbrekt is professor at the Swedish Defence University, visiting professor at Stockholm University, and nonresident senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.