Social consequences of the privatization in Bulgaria and socio-economic impact of the neo-liberal economic theory on the transition to free market and democracy in the period from 1989 to 2015
Objectives : We look at the privatization in Bulgaria as defined above from a certain historical distance of 25 years, trying follow the visible now social consequences of the privatization, such as social inequality vs economic development; demographic impact and new social structures and values. Method: We use a two-prong approach. For the socio-economic development we study six constant variables for the defined period such as number of people below poverty line, GDP, Gini Index, demographic dynamcs, employment rate, and Human development index; for the social changes, new structures and values we use a qualitative approach, based on based on interviews, questionnaires, field studies, etc. Results: We find that results by both methods, with all the limittaions they have, rather align with our hypothesis that privatization in Bulgaria was economically necessary, but socially destructive and led to devastating social consequences, mainly as a result of flawed privatization policies and practices. It did emerge from the predominant at that time neo-liberal economic view and the specific practices used in the Bulgarian privatization favoured mainly in short term for some small social groups but for the society as a whole. Conclusion: We find that the way Bulgarian privatization was conducted was socially and economically damaging with long lasting consequences. In the long run the economy has recoverd, however the social divergences tend to grow.
social inequality socio-economic development neo-liberal theory social values