Daniel Smilov

Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" · Political science

Populism, as a style of politics, is not necessarily negative per se – for example, such politicians tend to be quicker to recognise and highlight grievances which is a democratic tendency. However, populist political parties and leaders are often associated with negative effects – other kinds of politics can also be involved in producing these eff...

Lead Authors: Ruzha Smilova (CLS), Daniel Smilov (CLS) Other Contibutors: Reinhard Heinisch (PLUS) Martin Dolezal (PLUS) Marco Fölsch (PLUS) Viktoria Jansesberger (PLUS) This deliverable presents the final results of the work on causes of populism, within WP4 (Causal, Policy and Futures Analysis), focusing specifically on developing a theoretica...

This report presents the first results of the work on causes of populism, within WP4 (Causal, Policy and Futures Analysis) of PaCE project, H2020. It focuses specifically on identifying and analyzing causal mechanisms of populist voting. The report proceeds in two main parts and a concluding section. Part One is devoted to analysis of three types...

If the EU disintegrates or withdraws into a smaller western European core, Bulgaria and the Balkans will become a contested region between Turkey, Russia, and possibly even China. This will lead to instability and potential conflicts. Democracy in the Balkan countries would hardly survive, but it most probably would degenerate further into some for...

Десетте години членство на Република България в Европейския съюз е един от най- успешните периоди в българската история. Това е второ поредно десетилетие (след 1997 г.), в което страната се развива без сериозни кризи във вътрешно-политически план и в сравнително благоприятна международна среда. Със самото си членство в ЕС една бивша комунистическа...

The recent waves of protests affecting many countries in the world create the impression of rising levels of civic activism. The people vent their frustration with the performance of governments, parliaments and political parties. Trust in representative democratic institutions is very low both in established democracies and in countries in transit...

The chapter discusses informality – the failure of formal rules to regulate existing practices – as a considerable political challenge regarding the media in contemporary democracies. Two major types of informality are relevant for media and democracy - one caused by the weakness of institutions in certain democracies, especially those in “transiti...

Our research is an argument in favour of the view that think tanks emerge and evolve in specific social spaces constrained by the influence of other actors and factors such as the general ideological background, the party system, business and the groups of interest representation, the academic community, and the media. In terms of organization and...

Think tanks, and their role and relevance, should not be assessed primarily on the basis of their institutional capacity and resilience, but on the basis of their intellectual output, not only in terms of elaboration of specific policies, but in terms of interaction with their specific environment, and on the basis of their capacity to compensate f...

This article argues that the judiciary is normatively framed by four major grounds of legitimation: separation of powers, the rule of law, sovereignty, and impartiality of arbitration. All these four grounds entail more specific principles for the organization of the judiciary, and imply different modes of accountability. The four normative grounds...

This volume analyses the social and political forces that influence constitutions and the process of constitution making. It combines theoretical perspectives on the social and political foundations of constitutions with a range of detailed case studies from nineteen countries. In the first part leading scholars analyse and develop a range of theor...

The media environment in post-communist Bulgaria has been profoundly affected by the processes of transition from a communist society to liberal democracy, market economy, and European Union (EU) membership. After the fall of the regime in late 1989, the state-owned media went through a swift transformation of ownership and organisation, initially...

In the rapid changes brought about by the transition to liberal democracy in Bulgaria in the 1990s, media policy as such was not among the priorities of the main political and other players. Rather, the developments in this sphere were a result of a general drive for liberalization and less regulation, considered to be the proper way for the realiz...

This article explores the reasons for the introduction of anticorruption agencies of a specific type in Eastern Europe. It is argued that one of the important functions of these agencies—which are stronger on information gathering, coordination and strategy rather than on investigation of concrete cases—is to give to the government some leverage ov...

The report starts with an overview of the Bulgarian media landscape. Then it explores the normative framework, the regulatory bodies and the constitutional debates on media independence in the country. The goal is to place Bulgarian media policy in a political and social context and assess its relevance for democratic politics.

Crime as a Cultural Problem. The Relevance of Perceptions of Corruption to Crime Prevention. A Comparative Cultural Study in the EU-Accession States Bulgaria and Romania, the EU-Candidate States Turkey and Croatia and the EU-States Germany, Greece and United Kingdom

This chapter reviews the existing system of rights protection in Bulgaria with a focus on the rights of individuals from minorities and other vulnerable groups, and the role of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in this process. Section 2 of the chapter examines the basic components of the rights protection mechanism in Bulgaria. In section...

One characteristic of Central and Eastern European democracies in transition is the lack of stability in terms of accountability and transparency in practices of political party financing. This key volume provides a thorough and well-structured post-communist study of political finance, election campaign and party funding issues within this region,...

One characteristic of Central and Eastern European democracies in transition is the lack of stability in terms of accountability and transparency in practices of political party. This key volume provides a thorough and well–structured post–communist study of political, election campaign and party funding issues within this region, focusing specific...

In this chapter, the issue of judicial independence in the accession process was examined, and it was argued that any claim that the Commission assessment of the legal systems of the accession countries has been based on a coherent theory of judicial independence is deeply problematic. Despite the lack of such a theory, factors diverse as the domin...

The 1991 Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria proclaimed the principle of people's sovereignty in Article 1(2): "the whole power of the state stems from the people. It is exercised by the people directly, and through the bodies envisaged by the Constitution". However, the constitutional practice developed in the country, and the laws adopted si...

It is a well-known paradox that a polity cannot define its membership in a democratic way; there must be an already defined membership in order for a democratic procedure to take place. Therefore, even in genu-inely democratic polities, the original membership rules are a complex mixture of normative egalitarian principles and historical contingenc...

Corruption, as a clearly defined social problem, appeared in Bulgaria towards the end of the 1990s. Similarly to Western democracies, the problem of corruption in Bulgaria was first studied and brought to the social agenda by non-governmental actors. Broad corruption awareness campaigns, studies on corruption, and many other initiatives got underwa...

Crime as a Cultural Problem. The Relevance of Perceptions of Corruption to Crime Prevention. A Comparative Cultural Study in the EU-Accession States Bulgaria and Romania, the EU-Candidate States Turkey and Croatia and the EU-States Germany, Greece and United Kingdom