Reform In Bulgaria Research Articles

The eu’s policy towards modernizing the legislative framework on anti-corruption anti-corruption reforms in bulgaria

This article explores the EU’s anti-corruption legislation and policy framework, with a focus on Bulgarian reforms. It reviews key EU directives and institutions involved in combating corruption, and assesses Bulgaria’s progress and alignment with EU standards. The study examines the successes and challenges of Bulgarian anti-corruption measures through comparative analysis and case studies, offering insights into the effectiveness of these initiatives. Key EU bodies such as the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) are highlighted. Key terms include EU legislation, anti-corruption policy, Bulgaria, judicial reforms, and EU directives.

Assessing the 2019 Redesign of Bulgarian Fiscal Equalization System

In many countries the narrowing of horizontal fiscal imbalance at local government level is an important issue of national fiscal policy. Large fiscal disparities at municipal level could lead either to lower service levels in fiscally poor regions or to higher tax rates for similar service levels in these regions. In turn, this could thwart efforts to reduce inequality in income distribution between individuals or could induce fiscally inefficient migration of business and individuals. Since the launch of fiscal decentralization reforms in Bulgaria in 2003 part of central government grants system for municipalities has been the equalization grant aimed at financing a minimum level of local services delivery. The equalization formula has undergone many changes during the years, and the last one was implemented in 2019. The main focus of the current study is to compare the equalizing effect of the equalization schemes applied in Bulgaria in 2018 and 2019. In order to test whether the 2018 and 2019 distribution formulas carry an equalizing effect with respect to municipal expenditure needs, per capita transfers received is regressed on three variables or indicators reflecting the differences in the municipal expenditure needs. Our results show that the new equalization mechanism as of 2019 is better designed to capture the differences in municipal expenditure needs and to alleviate fiscal disparities at local level when compared to the mechanism applied in 2018.

What motivates patients to change general practitioners in the Pleven region, Bulgaria?

Abstract Problem The World Health Organization's 2008 World Health Report, entitled ‘Primary care now more than ever,' clearly states the need of knowledge about primary care not as one of the ordinary structures of the national health system, but as its leading priority. Description of the problem Since the start of health reform in Bulgaria, the choice and change of a GP by patients is most often spontaneous, random, and without enough specific information about the qualities of the GP. This reduces the effectiveness of the free choice of a doctor. The purpose of this study was to analyze the patient's motives for changing their GP. A survey was conducted among respondents in the period from September 1st to 30th, 2018 in the Pleven Region, Bulgaria. Patients who visited their GPs during the study period were interviewed. The results were processed using Microsoft Office Excel 2007. Results It was established that 830 (78.8%) of the 1053 respondents in the territory of Pleven Region have changed their personal doctor. The three leading motives were: long waiting times in front of the GP's office - 30.2%, change of residence - 19%, and lack of sufficient referrals from a physician to the specialist - 11.7%. Most of the surveyed patients assessed their GP as having a positive attitude toward them. 132 (12.6%) of the participants rate their personal doctor as rude, always being in a hurry, and nervous or not giving them any answers at all. Lessons When choosing a GP, the patient's prior information about the qualities and competencies of the personal physician of his\her choice is very low. It is necessary to create a system for the informed choice of a personal physician which will have a double effect, 1) a more adequate and more critically justified choice of a GP by the patient, and 2) a clearer, more stable commitment and responsibility of the GPs to the patients who chose them. Key messages It is necessary to improve the overall organization of the work of GPs. Healthcare is a type of interaction between the doctor and the patient during the diagnostic and treatment process.

Dr Vladimir Kalaydzhiev or the Embodiment of Modernity

The text attempts an experimental “double reading” of a significant figure in the history of Bulgarian health care – Dr. Vladimir Kalaydzhiev, initiator and organiser of a large-scale public health care reform in Bulgaria in the 1960s. The authors' different approaches make it possible, on the one hand, to interpret the specifics of the health reform and the reasons for its (partial) repeal in the context of synchronous developments in Europe and controversial, on the other hand, to contraversially offer a diachronic analysis with basic characteristics of the "Catholic West" and the "Orthodox socialist East".

Public Administration Reform in Bulgaria: Top-down and Externally-driven Approach

The article examines public administration reform (PAR) in Bulgaria and the main factors that shaped the reform agenda and dynamics. PAR is examined along five key dimensions – transparency and accountability, civil service and human resources management (HRM), public service delivery and digitalisation, organisation and management of government, and policy-making coordination and implementation. The article argues that there are four main factors influencing reform dynamics and determining policy outcomes in the Bulgarian case: the specific political choices made by government elites, external influence of the EU and of past national legacies, and the importance of institutions and reform mechanisms. To illustrate these factors at work, the article examines three policy initiatives, i.e. e-government, the reduction of administrative burden, and civil service reform. The article presents a longitudinal analysis and a qualitative case-study approach, utilising Annual Reports on the Status of the Public Administration 2001–2018, mapping European Semester Documents 2011–2017, an inventory of PAR initiatives 2005–2018, and interviews of public officials. The pushes for reform have been top-down, externally-driven, and stop-and-go in nature. The results confirm previous findings that Bulgaria is among the EU countries with the poorest record in PAR, struggling to overcome communist legacies and high levels of corruption and politicisation. The Bulgarian case highlights several important lessons: the importance of political will and political dynamics for the outcome of reform efforts; the importance of external pressure and financing; the difficulty of uprooting long-standing legacies in administrative traditions; and the limitations of the top-down approach as an obstacle to the sustainability of reform efforts.

CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS OF THE GEOGRAPHY TRAINING OF THE COUNTRIES IN THE BULGARIAN SCHOOL

This article explores geography training for the countries in high school, first high school and second high school stage. Content - analysis, conceptual and situational analysis, place and themes, meaning and role, goals and expected results, vertical relationships and activities, number of school hours and new concepts, geographical algorithm for characterization of the country and principles of study, and other methodologies - didactic segments, have been tracked.Didactic models of country training in compulsory and profiled preparation have been made up. Network dependencies and intra-disciplinary synthesis between the studied countries, typical representatives of the region between primary and secondary education for compulsory and profiled preparation, are revealed.Country training covers grades V, VI, VII, IX, X and XI in compulsory and profiled preparation.The educational reform in Bulgaria since 2016 has enacted in geography and economics curricula in all classes of compulsory preparation, with the article focusing on the connection and integration between compulsory and profiled geography preparation of the countries. The processes of expanding, upgrading and deepening the educational content for geography training of the countries by classes, stages and degrees of education are explored.Contemporary trends in the development of geographical science are reflected in the curricula content of profiled geography and economics preparation.Country geography training and territorial differentiation by region in the world are part of modular training 4.The curricula regulates the countries of study by applying the traditional geographical algorithm to characterize a country: geographical location and borders; geopolitical influence in the region and the world; natural resource potential; geo - demographic processes; urban development and urbanization; economic development.Characterization of selected countries in the region is constructed regionally - territorial and typological principle in XI class: Northern Europe (Sweden), Western Europe (United Kingdom), Southern Europe (Spain), Central Europe (Poland), Eastern Europe (Ukraine), Central Asia (Kazakhstan), Far East (Indonesia), Middle East (Iran), Middle East (Israel). Profile training in XI grade promotes the development of students' abilities to reason, discuss, comment and evaluate different ideas and concepts independently, which extends the geographical culture of understanding and reasonable activity in the geographical space.The geography and economics training of the profiled preparation are set out the current and contemporary trends of geographical development - regionalization, ecologization, economization, technology, socialization.The curricula determines the training in regional geography, focusing on the formation of students' skills for: expressing critical thinking, analyzing information from different sources, developing a scientific thesis, choosing contemporary behaviors and exhibiting active citizenship, discussing the basic intra-regional problems, mapping of sub-regions, analyzing information from different sources, developing a scientific question or solving a geographic case.

Education reforms for inclusion? Interrogating policy-practice disjunctions in early childhood education in Bulgaria

ABSTRACTThis article examines how early childhood educators, as policy implementers, perceive reforms in Bulgaria’s education system that occurred between 2008 and 2018. Both Roma and non-Roma educators participated in this project that compares perceptions of Bulgarian teachers in public schools and Roma educators in informal educational settings operated by NGOs and religious institutions. Applying intersectionality as a framework, the study draws from anti-Romaism as a particular form of racism that militates against the inclusion of Roma to examine whether and to what extent discourses of minoritized and racialised children are evident in the views held by the Bulgarian educators, resulting, in spite of educational reforms, in practices of pathologizing Roma children. All but one of the participating non-Roma teachers expressed anti-Roma views related to support for school segregation and perceptions of Roma children’s inherent academic inability and language deficiency. These views contrast with those of Roma educators, who pointed to major structural problems, such as poverty and segregation, that remain intact despite the reforms and thus have failed to reduce educational disadvantage.

ДИДЖИТАЛІЗАЦІЯ В УКРАЇНІ: ПОНЯТТЯ, ПРОБЛЕМИ, ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ ТА ЗАВДАННЯ ПУБЛІЧНОГО УПРАВЛІННЯ

The article analyzes the implementation of e-democracy and the digital economy and the corresponding changes in the terminology of public administration in Ukraine. The aim of the study is to find out the reasons for the active expansion of the terminology of modern Ukrainian and to link this process with the progress of reforms; to identify the essence of certain concepts, expediency of their use in official materials; to define the perspectives of digitization, its peculiarities in Ukraine and the tasks in terms of public administration. The research hypothesis is based on the perception of e-democracy and e- government not as technological solutions but as a modern concept that requires significant changes in public administration and should become a chance for the successful development of Ukraine. The use of the new terminology has objective reasons, but there must be justification and some limits. The author’s conclusions are grounded on the analysis of regulatory and legal base of informatization, scientific researches and Internet resources. The stages of informatization in Ukraine are identified. It is noted that in Ukraine, individual users and small businesses are far ahead of the state, pushing it to reform. Therefore, the author argues for a certain conditionality of the reforms, which is caused by the objective laws of social development. It is emphasized that the active use of the terms “digitization”, “reloading”, “restart” is an objective process, which reflects primarily the instability of Ukrainian reforms, the lack of their consistency and continuity, and at the same time has the task of encouraging, explaining, simplification, being a manifestation of a certain terminological equilibrium. This conclusion is supported by a comparison with the practice of reforms in Bulgaria and Poland, where the terminology of reforms is much more restrained. The problems of digitization in Ukraine are related not only to the technological backwardness, but also to the imperfection of public administration, which is heavily influenced by the oligarchs and is externally influenced. Therefore, e-democracy and the digital economy can develop effectively only if the internal contradictions will be overcome and the national unity based on national values will be achieved.

Transitions in Mental Health Care: the European Psychiatric Association contribution to reform in Bulgaria.

Abstract Background: The Bulgarian Ministry of Health invited the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) to evaluate Bulgarian mental health care service provision in 2018. Bulgarian mental health services face very significant challenges including a legacy of historic underfunding, internal conflicts, poor planning, and the emigration of very high numbers of younger skilled staff that had followed accession to the European Union. There were significant disputes between stakeholders regarding the way forward and had been at least two unsuccessful previous external agency interventions that had attempted to find solutions. Method: This EPA position paper describes in detail the EPA mission to Bulgaria including methodology, findings, recommendations, and finally the positive actions and changes that are now underway as a result of the EPA report and intervention aimed at contributing towards improving Bulgarian mental health services. Results: After meetings with multiple stakeholders in the Bulgarian mental health system and analysis of data on service delivery, workforce, funding and configuration the EPA Panel agreed a list of twenty recommendations for change. Conclusions: The EPA mission, with the collaboration of multiple stakeholders in Bulgaria, was successful in stimulating high level government action to improve mental health services. Despite longstanding differences, it was possible to involve the stakeholders in constructive dialogue. The importance of “speaking with one voice” was a key lesson learned.

AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISES IN BULGARIA: STRUCTURAL FEATURES AND DEVELOPMENT

The aim of the present article is to study and analyze the present state of agricultural farms in Bulgaria, and to provide directions for their development. The following tasks have been set in order to accomplish this goal: to establish the main difficulties in farm functioning; to discover the factors with an impact on their development; to offer adequate measures for sustainable growth. The study encompasses the period from the beginning of the transition to market economy in the 1990s to the end of the first programme period after Bulgaria’s accession to the EU. The sources of information used in the analysis include data from national statistics, agrarian reports from the Ministry of Healthcare and Food, literature by other authors, as well as our own research. Main conclusions: the agricultural reform in Bulgaria in the 1990s led to establishing a production structure of private agriculture farms; the latter is strongly polarized – with a large number of small size and few large size farms. Part of the small farms is maintained by people who have no other employment opportunities. Many of them start working with limited production resources and knowledge, they have an insufficient access to loans and professional training. These and several other factors obstruct successful farm functioning and decrease production results. Bulgaria’s accession to the EU deepened the polarization between small and big agricultural farms. This process was also affected by the EU Common Agriculture Policy, and most of all - the single payment scheme per unit of used land area. To stimulate the growth and development of family agriculture business in Bulgaria, the state needs to provide special conditions: young people will require professional entrepreneurship culture, they must acquire experience in developing successful agricultural farms at home and abroad; cooperation with research institutions is needed, as well as preferential crediting, introduction of “green” production technologies, etc.

THE CLASH BETWEEN LATIN AND ARABIC ALPHABETS AMONG THE TURKISH COMMUNITY IN BULGARIA IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD

In this article, I will address the topic of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria in the interwar period through the interpretive lens of the “linguistic” or better “alphabetic” rights,[1] placed in the context of the “Latinization” processes taking place in the wide Eurasian space, as well of the post-imperial sociopolitical dynamics.[2]To this aim, I describe the interesting and little known case of the writing practices of the Turkish community in Bulgaria in the period between the two world wars. In particular, I take into account the repercussions of Atatürk’s alphabetical reform in Bulgaria, demonstrating how the adoption of the Latin alphabet in Turkey represented a significant challenge for the country, triggering the fears of both the Bulgarian authorities and of the more conservative factions of the local Turkish community. In this context, I analyze the attitudes towards the Arabic and the Latin alphabet employed to write the Turkish language in the Balkan country, illustrating the reasons for the prohibition of the Turkish Latin alphabet, in an unprecedented combination of interests between Bulgarian authorities and Islamic religious leaders. I will try to show how in that specific historical moment, writing systems, far from being “neutral” communication elements, lent themselves to various manipulations of an ideological and political nature.My paper does not intend to represent a comprehensive contribution to the analysis of the complex subject of this community’s religious or political identity, but it rather aims to shed light on the limitations faced by the Turks of Bulgaria in terms of their linguistic rights in a period when other communities in Southeast Europe were encountering similar difficulties.[3] [1] See on the topic Linguistic Human Rights: Overcoming Linguistic Discrimination, (ed.) Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 1994. [2] See Valeri Stoyanov, “Die Türkische Minderheit Bulgariens bis zum Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges”, ВАЛЕРИСТИКА ПОЛИХИСТОРИКА-2. Избрани приноси към гранични области на историята, Институт за исторически изследвания при БАН, Sofia 2011, pp. 349-373. [3] As in the case that I will later discuss of the education policies for the Slavophone minority in Aegean Macedonia, Greece in the 1920s.

Disembedded Politics: Neoliberal Reform and Labour Market Institutions in Central and Eastern Europe

AbstractDefying predictions of radical liberalization, labour market institutions in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe are characterized by relatively protective employment legislation, sometimes combined with collective bargaining rights. However, not all protective employment regimes survived political attack by neoliberal reformers. Existing theories in comparative political economy suggest that employment regimes reflect the relative political power of producer groups. Others have suggested that in Central and Eastern Europe the content of labour market reform was determined by the coercive influence of transnational actors. Through a comparative analysis of labour market reform in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia, this article finds that trade unions played a key role in early institutional settlements over labour markets. However, in Romania and Slovakia, these institutional settlements were subsequently undermined by attacks by ideologically motivated domestic elites in episodes of disembedded politics. The article develops the concept of disembedded politics and demonstrates its importance in post-socialist institutional change.

Child Welfare Reform in Bulgaria – from Institutional to Family-Based Community Care: Engaging with Families, Children and Colleagues?

The authors present the child welfare policy reform and the process of deinstitutionalization of children’s services in Bulgaria. These developments are examined in the context of the country’s transition from a post-totalitarian to a liberal democratic state and from collectivistic to individual-centred practices. Therefore, the implementation of social policy promoting and regulating individualised community-based services faces challenges related to attitudes that support group-oriented and institutional-based care. There are three key contextual barriers to the provision of quality services for children with disability: engaging with the individual client, involving parents, and working in multidisciplinary teams. Clinical social work vignettes are presented to illustrate the above challenges.

Антикорупційні ініціативи болгарського громадянського суспільства: оцінка впливу на системну корупцію.

The article studies the participation of Bulgarian civil society in corruption counteraction on the national levels. It determines the extent of the “capture” of the state by corruption and underlies the systemic character of corruption in this country despite over a decade of EU membership. It is emphasized that the modern corruption practices in Bulgaria originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s: the overthrow of the communist regime and transition to market economy caused the emergence of informal groups of the former communist nomenklatura. It is noted that these groups still control the decision-making processes in the country by their activities in the “shadow zone” of politics, economy, and justice. Corruption significantly reduces the effect of the EU financial assistance and is an obstacle to Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen Area. The author notes that corruption counteraction has been included in the agenda of public policy only since the formation of I. Kostov’s democratic government in 1997. The final decision concerning the European integration vector in Bulgaria’s development led to the government and civil society cooperation in defining the national anti-corruption policy. The analysis of the pace of reforms in Bulgaria made it possible to conclude that this country has fallen into a post-communist trap, being in the “grey zone” between socialism and capitalism: de facto, several families form the Bulgarian politics; the media owners usually have close ties with the political elite, leading to lack of quality investigative journalism and to pronounced self-censorship of journalists; none of the Bulgarian ex-government officials have been convicted of corruption crimes. What makes Bulgaria significantly different from the other Central and Eastern European countries (especially Romania and Slovakia) is that the protest actions are not strong enough to force the authorities to take them into account. The largest surge in anti-corruption protests (three “waves”) was noted in 2013: 1) protests of socio-economic nature, complemented by anti-corruption demands (January – February); 2) protests against corruption and oligarchic political system (June – July); 3) student anti-corruption protests (November). The author emphasizes that currently the Bulgarian civil society remains relatively weak in its anti-corruption activities. The main obstacles to the effective work of the non-governmental sector include a rather limited participation of the NGOs in the public and political life, lack of solidarity etc.

The hospital sector reform in Bulgaria

The hospital sector reform in Bulgaria

A century of monetary reform in South-East Europe: from political autonomy to the gold standard, 1815–1910

This article documents and analyses monetary reform in Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Romania from 1815 (Serbian autonomy within the Ottoman Empire) to 1910, when Greece became the last country in the region to join the gold standard. It explains the five key steps towards monetary reform which the four countries took in the same chronological order, and asks why national coinage and the foundation of a bank of note issue came late in the reform process. The South-East European countries tried to emulate West European prototypes, yet economic backwardness meant such institutions were often different from the outset, remained short-lived or both.

Transfers and Learning in the Framework of Bulgarian Legal Reforms (1990–2013)

Since the fall of communism and all the way up to the present day, various international initiatives aimed at influencing justice reform in Bulgaria have sought to compel domestic actors to abandon inherited practices characterised by patrimonialism and political clientelism through imported professional and organisational standards. On the basis of an extensive qualitative study of the implementation of international technical assistance initiatives in the Bulgarian judicial system, we revisit the theory of relations between transfers and learning as it has been elaborated in studies of Europeanisation. Starting with an examination of specific reforms to modify the methods of recruiting, appointing and promoting magistrates, the article tackles the construction of an alternative conceptualisation that understands learning as the emergent and cumulative effect of a conjunction of social processes. This effect not only puts into play the process of appropriating exported elements but also carries with it endogenous dynamics, in particular political struggles between groups of justice professionals.

Reforms in Bulgaria

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Fiscal Decentralization and Local Finance Reforms in Bulgaria: A Review of Ten Years’ Experience

The changes in the system of intergovernmental fiscal relations in Bulgaria commenced at the beginning of the 1990s with the enactment of legislation on local self-governance and the first timid attempts at an expenditure and revenue assignment between the levels of government. The process began to gather momentum in 2002 when the government adopted a Concept paper on fiscal decentralization and an action plan on its implementation. A number of key reforms were legislated with the aim of broadening the municipal own-sources revenue base and increasing local government revenue autonomy. Dedicated action to set a decentralized public finance system in place resulted in a visible improvement of financial self-sufficiency of local authorities. Although still low in a European context, the values of fiscal decentralization indicators have gradually risen over the years, which is indicative of the success of the reform. The purpose of this paper is to overview the development of the process of fiscal decentralization in Bulgaria in the period 2003-2012 through examining its key aspects – expenditure responsibilities, revenue assignment and intergovernmental transfers – and to assess the policy options for addressing the current problems of local finance system. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p342

Defense Policy and Reforms in Bulgaria since the End of the Cold War: A Critical Analysis

IntroductionAfter the disintegration of the communist system in Eastern Europe the former communist countries had to make an unprecedented transition to a “normal” society. Having been diverted from their natural path of development, with