Ethnic Entrepreneurs Unmasked: Political Institutions and Ethnic Conflict in Contemporary Bulgaria by Petar Cholakov

Author:Petar Cholakov [Cholakov, Petar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, World, Russian & Former Soviet Union
ISBN: 9783838211893
Google: DlAVtQEACAAJ
Goodreads: 43982544
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2018-01-15T08:38:23+00:00

3. Channeling Ethnic Conflicts

According to the liberal ideal, the political institutions of democracies should be able to capture and represent the interests, as well as to channel the conflicts that emerge in the civil society. This is their contribution to the peaceful coexistence of individuals and groups. The government, legislation, and judicial system are political institutions that have a salient role in the process. In the analysis that follows I explore their effectiveness in Bulgaria for prevention and resolution of the ethnic conflicts after the collapse of the former communist regime. First, in Section 3.1, I examine the policies of government. I am interested, in particular, in the main directions and challenges in front of the integration of Roma in Bulgaria. I ask whether the country nowadays involuntarily repeats some of the disastrous mistakes and shortcomings of the integration strategies applied in the SFRY,233 thus failing to learn from the bitter lessons of history.

In my opinion, the Roma constitute an ethnic underclass in the Bulgarian society. The paramount argument in support of this thesis is the fact that they are subjected to major social exclusion or the inability to participate in society’s structures and institutions (Tomova 2006).234 As already mentioned, in spite of Roma political parties and organizations in existence, the representation of Roma in the parliament, the executive, and the local government is insufficient and ineffective (Tomova 2006: 541). Among the Roma population only 50.2% of the economically active persons are employed, that is 19.35% of all Roma aged 15 and more.235 Because of this the state is losing approximately 700 million leva/pa (Bozukova 2011). The segregation of Roma community has in fact increased between 1980, when 49% of the ethnicity lived in segregated neighborhoods and communities, and 2006, when this percentage has risen to more than 75% (Tomova 2006: 542). One of the worst consequences of segregation is the deterioration of the ability to prepare the younger generations for the formal economy and the major obstacles that the residents of segregated neighborhoods face in finding employment (ibid.: 542). The main questions that I attempt to answer are: what are the problems which plague the integration strategies and why they continue to be mostly a virtual, paper-made reality; what are the reasons for the continuing marginalization of Roma; why ghettoes and segregated education remain; why the employment strategies give little or no results; what are the risks that Roma exclusion raises; what are the necessary policy measures that must be applied in order to break this vicious cycle. I seek the answers to these pressing issues.

Section 3.2 is dedicated to the analysis of the legislation and judicial system. Under the Constitution from July 13, 1991, Bulgaria is a unitary state with continental legal system—the principle of stare decisis is not applied. The Constitution and the ratified international instruments are directly enforceable by the general courts. The judiciary is overseen by the Ministry of Justice. The Constitutional Court has exclusive authority to bindingly interpret the Constitution, while the Supreme Administrative

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