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Some insights: after the communist regime fell, the country was taken over by mafia organizations and most of the old secret services took many places in politi
by stanislavb 6y ago
Some insights: after the communist regime fell, the country was taken over by mafia organizations and most of the old secret services took many places in politics. i.e. there was a seeming democracy serving mostly the people playing against the law and same old and corrupt guys that used to be part of the communist party. As a result, many capable and smart people just left as soon as they could. Unfortunately, that is still the fact - the country is run by the mafia and it has the highest level of corruption in EU.
- toomuchtodo 6y agoHow does this compare to the fall of the USSR, and the rise of oligarchs in post-communist Russia? Very similar?
- pvg 6y agoSuperficially similar but one of these was the disintegration of a nuclear superpower and multi-national empire. Bulgaria is a small country in the Balkans. Its population is smaller than that of NYC.
- JBiserkov 6y agoBulgaria is in top 10 EU countries by area. It contains the entire Balkan mountains after which the Balkan peninsula is named.
- pvg 6y agoАз съм българче, oбичам наште планини зелени. It's still a small country.
- vldx 6y agoTerritorially, Bulgaria is close to Greece and larger than Austria, Portugal, Ireland and Czechia. It holds 16th position among 51 countries in Europe. High-income countries such as Denmark, Ireland and Switzerland also have lower population than NYC. What is your point?
- pvg 6y agoWhat is your point? I thought I made it clearly but I'm happy to repeat. The post-Soviet-collapse socio-political developments in Bulgaria are (for a lot of obvious reasons) almost, but not quite, entirely unlike those of the actual Soviet collapse. One of these obvious reasons is that Bulgaria is a small country. Especially compared to the Soviet Union. Which was a big country. In fact, the biggest one.
- ivankolev 6y agoYes, as much as demographic decline is a big problem, the bigger one is the total and deep institutional corruption.
- didibus 6y agoIts always corruption. Everywhere that's not doing well isn't doing well due to corruption. Corruption is the most important thing to fight and keep in check. There's actually an inverse correlation between corruption and GDP, and a few studies showing that lowering of corruption directly boosted economic prosperity. I wish more people actively brought up corruption, literally the most fundamental thing to fight.
- krakatau1 6y agoFunny thing about corruption...It's very hard to quantify and as someone who spent couple of years living in China I would say there is no link between corruption and economic growth.
- EdwinLarkin 6y agoI would say that the difference is that China's elites are interested in China's economic growth. They want to see China big and powerful and for that they need to sacrifice some of that greed (and really beyond certain amount of money it's about power and prestige not about endless $$$ on your bank account). The corrupted politicians and people are only interested in enriching themselves at the expense of everything else. For them being a client state of either Russia or the EU makes no difference because they know that to reverse the course of the country it takes more than one generation and nobody has time for that especially when you are buying your next super yacht.
- m000 6y agoAnd that's the problem with the EU. It will happily turn a blind eye to corruption as long as the exports keep flowing.
- Ericson2314 6y agoExports from Germany imported to poor member state you mean
- groby_b 6y agoHungary: Export surplus to Germany https://oec.world/en/profile/country/hun https://oec.world/en/profile/country/hun Bulgaria: Export surplus to Germany https://oec.world/en/profile/country/bgr https://oec.world/en/profile/country/bgr Romania: Balanced trade https://oec.world/en/profile/country/rou https://oec.world/en/profile/country/rou Would you mind clarifying what you're referring to?
- pgtan 6y agoThis is because of the exported feedstocks. If you go to Bulgaria (or any other Balkan country) you will see the land drown in german goods.
- krastanov 6y agoIs this a bad thing? We get to use the money from the export surplus to modernize other industries. It is not surprising that a poorer country will be in the agriculture business as it develops. For a positive change, see how the software industry in Sofia has been growing. It will take time to revive mid and heavy industries.
- EdwinLarkin 6y agoIt's a bad thing if you dont take advantage of it. The problem is the Eastern European countries never did. They never stood a chance in the first place. You need to own the value chain if you want to get richer.