The Duty to Obey the Law and Social Trust : The Experience of Post-Comunist Bulgaria  Cover Image

The Duty to Obey the Law and Social Trust : The Experience of Post-Comunist Bulgaria
The Duty to Obey the Law and Social Trust : The Experience of Post-Comunist Bulgaria

Author(s): Ruzha Smilova
Subject(s): Social Sciences
Published by: Centre for Advanced Study Sofia (CAS)
Keywords: deficit of trust in post-communist societies; developed democracies; transition period

Summary/Abstract: Post-communist societies are marked by a deficit of trust: members of these societies tend to trust authority and their fellow citizens less than the members of societies in developed democracies, and their low stock of trust is further depleted during the transition period. This low and further declining trust is often accompanied by a shaken belief in citizens’ duty to obey the law and in declining levels of law-abiding behaviour. The main question of my research is: how are the above phenomena related in the case of post-communist Bulgaria? Is low trust in institution the cause for lower trust in one’s co-citizens, or the other way around? Is the relation is more dynamic? Do these two types of trust relate and how do they relate to the decline in the levels of law-obedience in the country and to the attitudes of citizens to their obligations to obey the law? Exploring the mutual dynamics of social trust, trust in institutions and the attitudes towards the law is thus the main task of my research.

  • Issue Year: 2011
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 1-39
  • Page Count: 39
  • Language: English