Political Party Identification in Bulgaria

This assignment examines political party identification theory in Bulgaria, focusing on how factors like age, economic class, religion, and ethnicity influence an individual's alignment with parties such as GERB (conservative), BSP (socialist), and the Patriotic Block (nationalist). The analysis considers the ideologies represented by these parties and their impact on voter preferences within Bulgarian society.

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Political Identification Theory in Bulgaria
The following write up is development of political party identification theory in Bulgaria. The
theory will hypothesis on dependent variables that make people identify themselves as Socialist,
Nationalist or Liberal within a country’s political parties. The parties in Bulgaria are GERB,
Patriotic Block, and BSP. These parties represent a big deal of ideologies such GERB is
conservative, BSP is socialist, and Patriotic Block is an alliance of Nationalists1. GERB has 95
parliament seats out of the total 240 and a popular vote of 32%. GERB is the most popular party
and is lead by Boyko Borisov who is the incumbent prime mister of Bulgarian. BSP is an
acronym for Bulgarian Socialist Party which is the second popular party in Bulgaria with 27%.
BSP has 80 seats out of the total 240 seats in Bulgarian Parliament and is the official opposition
party in the country. Patriotic block Party is made of nationalist electoral alliance from different
political parties in Bulgaria. These alliances include National Front Salvation of Bulgarian and
Bulgarian National Movement. The party has no parliamentary seat and only has one seat in the
European Parliament. The Party had 19 parliamentary seats in 2014 with a popular vote of
7.29%2.
The following theory hypothesizes that a person age, economic-classes, religion, and ethnic
belonging determine the party identification of an individual to Socialist, Nationalist or Liberal
as the ideologies are represented by the country’s political parties. Age in this theory refers to an
independent variable on the age category of an individual that can either be 18-35, 36-55, 56-
over. People in different age category have different perception and have different priorities that
define their identity. Young people (18-35) are energetic, ambitious (think of a perfect world)
and open to new ideas in life that lead to a political party alignment in liberalizationn3. People
between the age of 36 and 50 are parents and focus much of their energy to preparing better

future for their children. This age category wants stable economy, resources, and opportunities to
better themselves and the country. This age category therefore aligns to political parties with
Nationalism or Socialism ideology. Old people are conservative and admire socialism and
conservative ideologies. The economic class in the theory refers to financial base of an
individual or family that influences person ideologies. Economic classes in Bulgaria are; low
class (poor), middle class and rich. Rich people are attracted liberalism and conservative
ideologies while poor people are attracted by socialism4. An individual ethnicity refers to distinct
individual dialect or origin and is part of Bulgaria. The Bulgaria languages include Bulgarian
who is the majority, followed by Turkish at 9.6%, Roma at 4.1% and other at 1%. The majority
ethnicity prefers conservative ideologies that protect their cultures and traditions while minorities
prefer socialism ideologies than enhance inclusivity in the country5. The other independent
variable is religion. Religion refers to an individual belief and worship. Bulgaria is a secular state
and has several religions. They include; Christianity, Muslims and others. More than 80% of
Bulgarian population belongs to Bulgarian Orthodox Church while 10% are Muslims and 12%
do not identify themselves with any religion. Religious people are conservative and think in
preserving traditions and culture and care for other people6. This makes them resistant or slow to
change and mind about the society welfare that contribute to their political alignment to
conservatives and socialist. Non religious people do not believe or think of supernatural power
and therefore mind little about other people in the society. This lead to political identification
with parties that is liberal.
In summary, the theory therefore concludes that an individual supports political parties that align
with their personal ideologies.

References
1. Berglund, Sten, ed. The handbook of political change in Eastern Europe. Edward Elgar
Publishing, 2013.
2. Kopecký, Petr, Peter Mair, and Maria Spirova, eds. Party patronage and party
government in European democracies. Oxford University Press, 2012.
3. Kaneva, Nadia, and Delia Popescu. "National identity lite: Nation branding in post-
Communist Romania and Bulgaria." International Journal of Cultural Studies 14, no. 2
(2011): 191-207.
4. Sussman, Abigail B., Kristina Petkova, and Alexander Todorov. "Competence ratings in
US predict presidential election outcomes in Bulgaria." Journal of Experimental Social
Psychology 49, no. 4 (2013): 771-775.
5. Latcheva, Rossalina. "Nationalism versus patriotism, or the floating border? National
identification and ethnic exclusion in post-communist Bulgaria." Journal of comparative
research in anthropology and sociology 1, no. 2 (2010): 187.
6. Spirova, Maria, and Boyka Stefanova. "The European dimension of minority political
representation: Bulgaria and Romania compared." East European Politics and Societies
26, no. 1 (2012): 75-92.