Antoaneta Hristova, DSc – Professor, Institute for Population and Human Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria

The current public processes in many countries with recognized democratic development depict a complex picture of numerous and diverse crises in recent years, catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This picture is a result of multifaceted explosions of the foundations of democracy and the factors that define it – fairness in voting methods, polarization and radicalization of public opinion on important societal issues, clash of the two main ideologies – liberalism (neoliberalism) versus conservatism (patriotism, nationalism), the growing belief that the world is dangerous, and so are the conspiracy theories explaining what is happening in the world. Wars and a series of unstable governments have occurred in many parts of the world against such profound crises in socio-psychological experiences alongside unsuccessful elections and citizens’ participation refusal. That is a refusal to utilize the opportunity to control societal and political processes. The latter raises questions related to the future of democratic processes and the understanding of the socio-psychological phenomena underlying their crisis manifestation. The noted turbulences strongly affect countries with young democracies, such as Bulgaria. Why are the processes in those countries perhaps even more dramatic? Due to the lack of traditions in the democratic process, the absence of a functioning civil society, the formal modernization (liberalization) imposed by the EU without being internally inherent to value orientations, and many other reasons. Therefore, the negative societal processes in these countries carry a high risk regarding the preservation and development of what has been achieved up to this point.