The European Integration as Maker or Breaker of the Democratic Political Culture in the Post-Communist Context: The Cases of Bulgaria and of Macedonia

Abstract

This paper is about some counterintuitive effects on the political culture that become possible as a result of an external, for the political system, impact following asymmetrical power relations. The dominant side does not impose directly its will, but change the way the subordinated side sees itself; this change in identity in the latter brings the possibility of behavioral changes that affect the functioning of the subordinated side’s political system. This process is different either from the institutional learning or from the strategic-based interests of both parties. This paper, part of a doctoral research, using original data, traces the different cultural trajectories that become possible as a result of such asymmetrical power relations. They either confirm or reject different elements within the main existing models of political culture change, institutional and strategic. It also draws the borderlines of such internationally based change.