Abstract*

The central aim of the present paper will be to provide thorough analysis of three of the main political ideologies in western Europe with regard to their origins, economic and social views, as well as their different interpretations on what should be the basic functions of the government, and to what extent (if any) should the government intervene into the economic and social life of the country. Afterthat, the paper will undertake the risky aim of comparing parties from the analyzed ideological families in a nascent eastern European democracy - Bulgaria with their counterparts in western Europe. The target of this comparison will be to identify to what extent the Bulgaria parties are actually pursuing the same objectives and policies as their counterparts in western democracies. The case study of Bulgaria was motivated by the fact that so far, to the best of the author’s knowledge, no such comparison has been made and at the same time the development of the Bulgarian parties is representative about the ideological shift worldwide. It should be mentioned here, however, that the political parties are increasingly moving towards the centre of the political arena, therefore their differences are becoming less observable. This tendency is even more pronounced in the condensed political space of Bulgaria, where for a population of less than 8mln. the number of political parties approximates 200, and the accession process to the EU is putting severe constrains on the economic, political, and social behavior of the country and of the parties within it. Due to these factors any comparisons between parties on national or/and international level tend to be risky and uncertain.

I. Ideological families of parties in Western Europe: origins, economic and social views, attitudes towards the government.

In the first part of the paper the emphasis will be put on distinguishing the main features of three political parties in western Europe using as a separation criteria their attitudes towards a set of variables, namely the economy, society, and government. It is important to be pointed out at this stage that similarities may arise in one or more of the chosen criteria even in the “ideal” types of the different parties. This tendency is even more distinct today , since in the globalized world extremes are rarely tolerated, and it is politically relevant to move towards the center. Moreover, in order to receive wider political support, enter government, and exercise political power parties are forced to form coalitions, and to compromise some of their strongest beliefs, which is largely the case with the coalition between NMS (liberals), BSP(socialists), and MRF(Turkish ethnic party) formed in Bulgaria after the 2005 parliamentary elections . The analysis will start with the social-democratic parties and will move along the political scale to the liberal and christian-democratic parties. The paper is not going to identify the far-left/communist, and far-right/fascist parties, as well as the agrarian and green movements, since they are not adequately represented in the Bulgarian political spectrum which will be taken as a case study at the second part of the paper .

Social democrat/labor parties
The social democrat parties were inspired by the Marx ideology and the commitment to classless society. The social democrats put an emphasis on social reform and gradual, democratic change . The socialists acknowledge the need of government involvement into the economy in order to ensure smooth performance and lack of economic shocks. The government should also eradicate poverty, ameliorate the disadvantages of the less fortunate classes, immunize the society against the whip of the market and set conditions in which everyone is able to develop his potential to the fullness . The rhetoric on abolition of capitalism(characteristic for the communists) has been effectively changed by one stressing on humanizing it. Socialists believe in society working together cooperatively and morally as a community rather than each individual pursuing competitively his material self-interest.
Today the social democrats have effectively met the challenges posed by the economic globalization and the rise of the achievement culture. They have not abandoned the characteristic values of freedom, equality, solidarity, just redefined and represented them in terms of current problems instead of past struggles, which will become clear in the second part of the paper with the example of the Bulgarian Socialist Party .

Liberal parties
With the state building process initiated at the late 18th century, and with the cult towards individualism emerged the liberal parties. The liberals believe the society is comprised from a collection of individuals with individual beliefs and values that should be respected. For the liberals the economy should be free with no state intervention into its functioning . There is fierce opposition and distrust towards “big government“ and special relations with the Church. Liberals endorse the idea of constitutional and representative government in which the constitution is such developed as to limit the intrusion and absolute power of the government . Another important characteristic of the liberal party is the centrality of meritocracy within its societal attitudes. According to the liberal ideas given equal opportunities each individual’s achievements are solely based on his/her personal merits and skills. Thus, the role of the government should be only to secure social justice, equal opportunities, and to provide minimum safety net for the less able, those who failed to compete successfully in the market. The government is seen as a solution of last resort when all the other options (family, market, etc.) have failed to provide the minimum living standards for the individual. Thus, the social provisions are attached to stigma for the beneficiaries .
The liberal ideology has undertaken a considerable transformation and adopted some socio-democratic ideas. Most liberal parties today believe that government should be responsible for delivering welfare services, such as health, pensions and education . The Bulgarian liberals National Movement Simeon 2 presents a hybrid between the liberal and socio-democratic ideology, and is an example of the altered creed of the liberal parties today.

Christian democrat/conservative parties
The conservative parties have emerged as reaction against the mass movement for change and revolution. The conservatives believe in hierarchical society, human imperfection and in the need of state-prescribed morale, and strong connections with the Church . The government should support the established institutions of authority, family values, tradition and undertake only incremental reform. Moreover, the government should not be responsible for the welfare of the citizens, and can help only the less able on its own discretion, such help should not be expected as its responsibility .
The Christian democrats today are amongst the most pro-European parties, that put strong emphasis on morality, education, laizzes-faire economy, and minimalist state. The dramatic change the conservative ideology has undertaken is obvious when a close look is taken at the programme of the Bulgarian UDF. Being a truly opportunistic party the UDF has almost abandoned most of the christian-democratic principles and adopted the liberal and socio-democratic ideology.

What is apparent from the short overview above is that parties have been moving towards each other along the political scale. Thus, today the parties that represent the different ideologies are closer in their views than their ideological labels actually allow them to be. This will become clear in the next part, where a case study of the three most influential parties in a young democratic system will be undertaken. The Bulgarian party system will be identified based on the criteria proposed by Meny&Knapp, the strength of the political parties within the system will be briefly evaluated based on the internal(constitutional) and external (international organizations, namely EU and IMF) constraints, and finally an attempt will be made to identify to what extent the Bulgarian parties have moved away from the characteristics of the ideology they have been following in the last 17 years .
II. Ideologies in Practice: The Bulgarian political parties
In developing countries, the parties created and organized often bear no more than a formal resemblance to the models claimed to inspire them, thus it is extremely difficult to make comparisons . In this second part of the paper, though, an attempt for a comparison between the parties in a young democracy, and the established models in western Europe will be made. The structure of the second part of the paper will start with identifying the formation of the Bulgarian party system, the institutionalization of the political parties, the basic functions that they exercise, and the public support they are receiving . Afterthat a closer study will be undertaken for the most influential players in the present Bulgarian political arena, and respectively their attachment to the values characteristic for their counterparts in western Europe.

Bulgarian Party System

The party system in Bulgaria is a combination of numerous factors, the most important of which historical divisions, impact of international events, and the disability of existing parties to adapt and discourage the emergence of new competitors .
It was the case in Bulgaria for almost a decade after the fall of the communist regime in 1989 to have a duopolistic party system. There were not just two parties but there was always one of the two main in power. Gradually Bulgarian party system moved to multipartism, in which a propensity to form coalitions between different parties, even when they favor different programmes has been existent .
The parties in Bulgaria are constitutionally recognized and granted with almost unrestricted power. The age and the size of the parties seems to be of minor importance for the electorate in Bulgaria, thus the traditional parties that emerged after 1989 have constantly been changing or decomposing, and new parties have been emerging literally each month . The party manifestos which are the basic point for comparison between the various political groups, in Bulgaria proved to have identical ends .
The functions of the parties in Bulgaria have been to organize and express the choices of citizens. Since Bulgaria is a representative democracy, what government does should be affected by the parties who compose it . Though all of the parties irrespective of their ideology proved to be inadequate in answering the popular demands. This inadequacy has numerous explanations, but the most important one would be the decreased by the international organizations, such as EU and IMF, state’s ability to control its own affairs, respectively the space for maneuver for the political players is quite limited . In the present time the link between the citizens and the parties has been broken which is evident from the low turnout in the 2005 elections(53.8%) and overall disenchantment of the nation with any political party.

The formation of the political parties in Bulgaria and development of their ideas.

The fall of the communist regime in 1989 presented a unique point of history for the Bulgarian political system when the process of state building started from the real beginning. New institutions have been build, new opportunities for expansion of the economy provided, and new political parties formed based on the already approved western models . Since the nation has been over-exhausted with the centralized government and planned economy everything that was different and supposedly democratic was associated with better development. Thus, the Christian-democratic UDF (United Democratic Forces) emerged. The founding members of the new party designed a populist programme which stigmatized the big government and controlled economy, and promised rapid economic recovery due to free market forces. The general goals of the programme were: a civil society, market economy, privatization of industries, open relations with the rest of the world, multiparty system, individual liberty and constitutional government . The cult to capitalism was established and any government intervention into the economy severely reprimanded. UDF developed the idea of capitalist welfare where the state should just provide the legal framework within which everyone will be able to pursue his/her own individual welfare. Appropriate areas for state intervention were just defense, rule of law, and the maintenance of certain public works and institutions that the market cannot fully provide, and relief from destitution . The UDF believes that the state with its bloated bureaucracy should “roll-back” and increased agencification for the provision of services should take place. Since at the beginning of the transitional period the UDF was willingly associating itself with the West, which proved to be a winning ticket, in time the mood of the public changed. The western capitalism was linked to exploitation and spoiled morale. Thus, the UDF met the popular electoral disillusionment. It was viewed as the party of the rich and utter individualists which are not fit for the communal mentality of the Bulgarian nation . In the last parliamentary elections UDF was unable to enter government.
The main opponent of the UDF has been BSP (Bulgarian Socialist Party) - the transformed communist party. As expected, immediately after the fall of the regime the BSP was not amongst the most prominent parties. In a few years, though, BSP gained momentum, altered its programme, and used the popular disillusionment with the UDF for expanding its electorate. BSP effectively designed its party manifesto including in it the approval of the market economy, individual liberty and open relations with the rest of the world. In the BSP platform underlining is the desire for mixed economy and higher commitment on the side of the state to welfare provisions. BSP presently is strongly pro-European with emphasis put on preservation of the national values, traditions and humanity into the new community . Politics in a stable multi-party democracy is a battle over the political center, and the last parliamentary election results demonstrated the BSP’s ability to move further to the center and form coalition with its former rivals .
The June 2001 parliamentary elections welcomed the emergence of a new party within the Bulgarian party system. The National Movement Simeon II (NMS) won half of the seats in parliament, even though it was established less than three months before the elections . NMS is a personally-oriented, organizationally-weak and non-issue based movement with little programmatic identity . The strong side of the NMS was the charisma of its leader. Deeply attached to its history and past glory, the Bulgaria nation was trustful and sympathetic with the ex-Bulgarian Tsar. Moreover, the new liberal party challenged the established left-right prism which was overused throughout the years, and presented new alternative to the tired voter. NMS was formed largely from an economic team of young, highly-successful, Western-educated financiers who presented themselves as the bright future of the country. NMS supports the EU integration process and put incredibly strong emphasis on market economy . The ex-Tsar promoted a policy of honesty in government, and a free-market programme to improve living standards within 800 days, stable economic growth, drastic reduction of unemployment together with promises for increase in welfare expenditures . NMS believes in social justice, equal opportunities and state strong only in the sphere of welfare provisions. Clearly there is some similarity between the liberalism in the West and the immature liberal movement NMS in Bulgaria, though the platform of the NMS is so abstract as to make it almost impossible to compare it to an established ideology.

Conclusions

The sole aim of the present paper was to identify three of the main ideological families of political parties in western Europe, and practically to show to what extent the parties in an eastern European democracy share the features of the model they have been following.
The party which proved to be closer to the western ideology is the socio-democratic Bulgarian Socialist Party. The emphasis on mixed economy, humane capitalism and classless society, together with the social responsibility of the state to grant social justice and equal welfare provisions for the society is identical between the western prototype and its eastern adherent.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, the party which deviated most from the prescriptions of the ideology it has been following is the Christian-Democratic United Democratic Forces. UDF favors constitution such designed as to limit the powers of the government, which is one of the main elements within the liberal ideology. The strong UDF opposition against the state bureaucracy, and intervention into the economy has similar elements with the western new-right rather than with the Christian Democratic ideology . Contrary to the CDPs in the west UDF favors reform, transformation of existent institutions, and clear separation between the state and the Church. The only characteristic which UDF shares with the conservative ideology is the opposition to the state’s welfare provisions, though even in this field this opposition is more implicit than clearly stated in the UDF programme . Thus, programmatically UDF has almost no resemblance to the Christian Democratic ideology, and has abandoned the basic principles of this ideology. The example posed by UDF is that the CDPs are increasingly adopting principles characteristic for the Socio-Democratic and Liberal ideologies.
It proved to be extremely difficult to distinguish the main points within the programme of the third analyzed party NMS, and to compare it with the established western liberal ideology. Apparently, NMS is following to a certain extent the basic tenets of the liberal ideology, such as strong support for the free market economy and opposition towards the big state. In regards to its view about society and welfare, NMS is closer to the socio-democrats than to the liberals, since it considers the state as responsible for assuring adequate living conditions for the population, and envisions the government as the first provider of ample living conditions.

Political parties have been increasingly moving towards each other programmatically. They are abandoning the prescriptions of the ideological models they have been following, and there is obvious propensity among the parties to mix their ideologies in order to stay politically relevant and appealing to the electorate. The case of Bulgaria effectively showed that the parties are progressively moving towards the center, away from the ideal ideological model they have been following, and ready to compromise their principles. According to the author the development of the Bulgarian parties is to a greater extent representative of the political revision of ideologies on a macro level, and the hope behind the paper is that it managed to exemplify and prove this ideological transformation.

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Some minor insights taken out from:
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2. Esping-Anderson, Gosta.(1990)The Three worlds of welfare capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press
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