Cultures of Democracy in Serbia and Bulgaria

Cultures of Democracy in Serbia and Bulgaria – How Ideas Shape Publics (Ashgate, 2014)

The central finding of this comparative ethnographic study is that the Serbian public sphere is considerably more contested, pluralist and (at the margins) liberal than its Bulgaria counterpart. This suggests that the progress of Post-Socialist states in implementing liberal democratic institutions to the satisfaction of the European Union – and democracy databases such as Freedom House - is not a reliable guide for ascertaining whether or not liberal ideals have taken root in those societies. Considering that Bulgaria has been a full EU member since 2007 while Serbia remains stuck in the waiting room, it is argued that democratic cultures are not shaped by elite-led drives to meet institutional criteria but rather by the spread of ideas through politics, the media and the discussions of citizens. These findings were made possible through an analytical approach that privileged ideas and identities over institutional procedures: an application of normative public sphere theory (after Habermas 1962) to elite political discourse and everyday discussion, observed mainly through twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork in the large provincial cities of Niš and Plovdiv. This book therefore seeks to demonstrate the value of a society-oriented approach to the study of democracy.

Biographical Information

James Dawson lectures at the School of Public Policy, University College London, where he has served as Director (acting) of MSc Democracy and Comparative Politics since November 2013. He will be a Visiting Research Fellow at University of Graz CSEES during the summer term of 2014-15.