The Rise of Populist Electoral Authoritarianism in Turkey: a Case of Culturally Rooted Recidivism

Author(s): İlter Turan / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

The trend in Turkey’s politics toward “electoral authoritarianism” is rooted in the long history of modernization. Tensions between traditional society and modernizing elites (with strong links to the military) resulted in the series of military coups in the 20th century and weak civilian regimes. The originality of the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) since its coming to power in 2002 is that it has been able to consolidate the support of less privileged strata and to establish full control over the state. How durable is this system remains an open question.

Individual-Level Evidence on the Relationship between Trust in Political Institutions and Generalized Trust: An Analysis in the Case of Vietnam

Author(s): An Nguyen Huu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

The relationship between political and generalized trust has been placed in the centre of academic debate for several decades. Recent studies have found a positive link between the two constructs in democratic countries and Asian nondemocratic settings,but no correlation among them in post-communist countries. This paper extends the understanding of the link in nondemocratic settings by taking Vietnam as a case to investigate conditions behind the relationship. Using data of Vietnam from the fourth wave of Asian Barometer Survey, results of logistic regressions reveal that different types of trust in political institutions differently affect generalized trust. Trust in partisan institutions is positively associated with generalized trust, while there is no relationship between trust in checking institutions and generalized trust. Furthermore, partisanship and voluntary associational membership are demonstrated as two prominent conditions under which the variation of the link between trust in political institutions and generalized trust can be observed.

С поглед към света и България

Author(s): Evgenia Kalinova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2020

Междувоенна България в изображения. Диагностично проучване по история и цивилизация в VI клас

Author(s): Maria Nikolova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2015

The article presents the results of а didactic diagnostic test which was conducted among students of VI degree in 138. „Prof. Vassil Zlatarski“ School. The results of the diagnostic study reveal the students’ abilities to work with images, such as explaining the causes and consequences of historical events, comparing images and compilation of short text answers.

Обществени колекции с музеен профил в българските висши училища: създаване, управление, перспективи

Author(s): Vera Boneva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2020

University museums in Bulgarian higher education institutions are described and analyzed in the context of the current educational and cultural trends. The important features of this specific academic units are highlighted with specification of some distinguishing museum collections, which work fruitfully inside and outside of their own university space. Administrative improvement and more active promotion are recommended as key paths for a more positive prospect ahead of the whole 27 Bulgarian university museums. In the article are involved data, extracted from the cited sources and from the official internet sites of the mentioned higher education institutions.

Условия за появата на предприемаческо съсловие в Сопот, Карлово и Калофер през Възраждането

Author(s): Ivaylo Naydenov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2020

The purpose of this article is revealing the conditions and prerequisites for the “birth” of the entrepreneurial class in Sopot, Karlovo and Kalofer during the 18th-19th centuries. The main conclusion is that the combination of a favorable external environment and appropriate personal qualities make possible the appearance of people with enterprising spirit. In other words, Bulgarian Revival entrepreneurs from Sopot, Karlovo and Kalofer are born, but they are also made through the accumulated experience and knowledge.

Лабиринт и избор в творческите търсения на Христо Попконстантинов – виден родопчанин и общественик

Author(s): Maria Glavcheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2020

In this article, we aim to reveal some of Hristo Popkonstantinov's rich literary heritage, as well as biographical details about him. We study archival materials and information in literary resources. The scientific methods used are: the historical-chronological as well as the specific methods of archivism. The depth of the author's searches in the novel “The Physics of Sorrow” by contemporary Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov, intertwining the past and present in a special and successful way, led us to think that we could connect our scientific study of one of the most prominent Rhodopes with the topic of the maze and the choice that must inevitably be made. In the complicate labyrinth of Bulgarian post-liberation reality,Hristo Popkonstantinov masterfully overcomes the confusion of many possible exits through his sense of the right direction – namely tireless and stubborn self education,preservation of the Bulgarian historical and folk heritage and respect to the Motherland. Hristo Popkonstantinov stands out as the first Rhodope writer and public figure of national importance.

Мегданът на българските емигранти

Author(s): Julia Popcheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2020

With its fifth edition in 2019, the festival ‘Na Megdana na Drugata Bulgaria’ (At the Public Square and Gathering Point of the Other Bulgaria) establishes itself as one of the main events for Bulgarian emigrants in Europe. It gathers folklore enthusiasts and besides a dancing stage, it is a ground for new friendships, meetings, and exchange of expertise. The article examines the festival as a place of contact of informal migration-based groups of interest and as a trigger for developing an imagined community around symbols such as origin, clothes, music, dance and food. The ‘megdan’ is considered a community centre existing mainly in people’s mind but not as a geographic location. The article searches for the link between the event and the ways of preserving and transmitting cultural heritage in migration. The study was conducted in three stages: a preliminary online survey; fieldwork in the period May 10 – 12, 2019 in La Nucia, Spain; an additional digital data gathering.

Traumas of Roots and Extinction in the 20th Century Literature of Empire: The Mirror Principle in Marguerite Duras’ India Cycle (1964-71) and Ahmed Ali’s Twilight in Delhi (1940)

Author(s): Tadd Graham Fernée / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

This article comparatively analyses Marguerite Duras’ India Cycle and Ahmed Ali’s Twilight in Delhi. A Mirror Principle centres on ‘emptiness’, synthesising elements of Marxism and Buddhism. A new optic is created for understanding 1930s Indian nationalism, including Dalit and national leader Ambedkar, Tagorian “composite culture”, Mohammed Iqbal, and Islam and gender in northern India. The Mirror Principle juxtaposes Heideggerian ‘repetition’ and Marxian ‘dialectics’ as divergent anti-colonial paths. Duras and A li a re l inked b y a c ommon P roustian p roblematic o f m emory a nd e phemerality. They revolutionize the Proustian tradition to create a new literary genre in oneiric socialism. The article analyses trauma, in the French Resistance and the 1857 rebellion, and literary reconstructions of traditional roots in their wake, with differing nation-making ramifications.

Център и периферия на европеизираните публични сфери

Author(s): Ralitsa Kovacheva,Ralitsa Kovacheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2018

The text presented is dealing with the current transformations of the Europeanised public spheres. The author argues that depending on the level of presence of the current European debates in the national public sphere, we can highlight centre and periphery and in parallel with the process of Europeanisation, the opposite process is also taking place – a process of peripheralization. Besides the theoretical arguments, the book presents the results of a comparative analysis of 2014 European elections` media coverage in the most popular newspaper websites in Bulgaria and the UK (February-June 2014). 3356 publications from 8 media outlets (The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, Daily Mail, 24chasa.bg, Dnevnik.bg, Trud.bg and Segabg.com) have been coded and analyzed.

Populizm jako forma przywództwa politycznego: trzy tradycje teoretyczne i perspektywy badawcze

Author(s): Jan Pakulski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

In a contemporary political sociology, experiencing a renaissance in political leadership studies, the populism – defined as a specific type of anti-establishment leadership – is quite well known not only from current „rises”, but also from former cyclic „tidal waves”. Even if there are visible parallels to former waves of populist politics, few socio-political analyses of the current „third wave” sweeping across Europe and the US benefit from the theoretical body of researches of previous waves. The current approach focuses on a shallow theoretical-historical approach to populism as a sui generis novum, as a critical backlash to contemporary development trends (ie. globalism, centralized government, neo-liberal politics, etc.). Thus this paper aims at reminding three important analyses relating to three consecutive waves of populism. All three point at populism as a manifestation of democratic trends and focus attention on leadership groups. Alexis de Tocqueville viewed populist campaigns of Louis Napoleon in France as manifestations of a „despotic democracy”. Max Weber judged European populisms he witnessed as manifestations of a „plebiscitary democracy”. Contemporary neo-elitists focus their attention both on leaders and on the structure of leadership groups as well as on relations between leaders and their „electorate”. Such leadership focused perspective is a necessary addendum to the research on contemporary populism.

Забраненият смях

Author(s): Bogdan Dichev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2020

The text presents the ideas about the uselessness of the political correctness as a social act and analyses the comic mechanisms of several types of politically incorrect jokes. The author argues that laughter in this short contemporary folk form could quite often be happy, constructive and good-willed as far as the minority joke characters are concerned as representatives of differing and presumably oppressed communities. Several examples certifying for the semantic reflections of self-irony, overcoming of pain, re-ordering of the well-known world and mutation of the already known, turning the otherwise insulting meanings and plots into sincere and lively laughter. Finally, the author deals with the dilemma if the politically incorrect jokes should give way to silencing.

Принос към културната история на Източна Румелия (из епистоларното наследство на фамилията Богориди)

Author(s): Rusalena Pendzhekova-Hristeva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2020

The article presents an unknown letter from the epistolary heritage of the Bogoridi family, in French in handwritten original, sent by Emanuel Bogoridi to his uncle Alexander Bogoridi, dated June 12, 1879, currently stored in the collection of the Bulgarian Historical Archive at the National Library “Ivan Vazov” – Plovdiv. The source and archeographic aspects of the newly discovered document are examined. In terms of content, the background of the idea of founding a museum, a library, an archive and a university in Eastern Rumelia and the involvement of one of the most famous European Slavic scholars in the person of Konstantin Irechek for this cause are presented. By publishing the letter in Bulgarian for the first time, it is included in scientific circulation.

Потопено наследство: за песните от дъното на язовира и медийното им изплуване

Author(s): Ventsislav Dimov,Lozanka Peycheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 8/2020

The study focuses on part of the submerged heritage under the waters of several dams in Bulgaria (Ovcharitsa, Rozov Kladenets and Tsonevo). Popular folk singers (Stefka Sabotinova and Penka Pavlova) and singing groups and local singers („Sminana Kitka“, Silvia Dimitrova), who keep songs from the sunken villages, are presented. The focus is on research and knowledge of folklore as a pillar of memory, in the case of the village of Asparuhovo, near and under the waters of Tsonevo Dam. Emphasis is placed on the role of various media and especially digital new media spaces for the „emergence” of the traditional song heritage from the villages left at the bottom of various dams.

Нарастващата роля на електронните медии за медийната грамотност на публиката в епохата на информационната криза

Author(s): Iglika Ivanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 8/2020

Two decades after the publication of the Green Paper on the convergence (1997), radio and television are not only creating and disseminating more and more digital content through digital technologies but are striving for an increasingly integrated online presence. Along with search engines, internet platforms have become an important intermediary between media service providers and audiences whose habits have changed dramatically in the second decade of the 21st century. Broadcast media (BM) have no choice but to be where the users of media content are - content of different quality, origin, purpose, logic of distribution. At the same time, audiences are overwhelmed with mis- and disinformation, which often comes from fake pages and profiles posing as legitimate media organizations, and set against trustworthy media and journalists from public figures. This creates an information crisis, which can be counteracted both by legislative measures and by empowering the audience with media literacy. And while the implementation of educational reform is a slow process, the BM, which still have the largest audiences and are most trusted, can play an essential role in increasing the media literacy of citizens. A function of great public importance, at the same time entirely in their interest.

Written Sources on 17th-century Russian Icons in the Orthodox East:

Author(s): Nadezhda Chesnokova / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2020

Au 5VIIe siècle, les icônes russes avaient déjà gagné les régions post-byzantines sous domination o1o- mane de l’Orient chrétien : les contrées grecques et balkaniques, l’Afrique du Nord et l’Asie Mineure, Crète, Chy- pre, la Palestine, la Syrie et le Liban. Les archives (peu étudiées) témoignent d’une exportation élevée de peintures religieuses russes dans l’espace méditerranéen. Une grande partie de ce1e documentation se trouve aux Archives Nationales des Actes Anciens de Russie (RCODo). Ces documents ayant appartenu autrefois à l’administration diplomatique, Posol’skij Prikaz, sont conservés dans le Fonds 52 et concernent les relations entre la Russie et les centres ecclésiastiques orthodoxes situés dans l’Empire o1oman. Au 5VIIe siècle, les œuvres russes qui circu- laient en Orient étaient en grande partie le fruit des activités évergétiques des grands princes et des tsars, mais le commerce jouait aussi un rôle important dans leur transmission. À en juger par le grand nombre d’oeuvres qu’ils possédaient, leur qualité artistique et leur coût de production élevé, les patriarches devaient être les commandi- taires les plus importants. Cependant, les émissaires du tsar se rendaient en Orient pour diverses missions et apportaient également des icônes. Les Grecs qui vivaient en Russie ou qui y séjournaient longtemps envoyaient, eux aussi, des icônes russes dans leur patrie. Enfin, les icônes russes étaient exportées par les marchands grecs. À Moscou, les étrangers pouvaient commander les icônes directement auprès des peintres ou les acheter sur le marché. Les archives conservent encore des nombreux testaments de Grecs décédés à Moscou, riches en informa- tions quant aux icônes russes qu’ils ont eues en leur possession. Un bon nombre de maîtres russes ont travaillé à l’étranger, en particulier dans les Principautés de Valachie et de Moldavie. Certains étaient peintres d’églises, mais d’autres peignaient des icônes sur commande. Ces icônes passaient de main en main, au sein des familles ; étaient léguées par testament ; faisaient l’objet de dons envers les églises et les monastères ; etc. Les voies d’exportation des icônes russes vers l’étranger étaient donc des plus diverses. Les documents d’archive ne cessent pas de sur- prendre avec une variété de nouvelles informations à leur sujet.

Russian Orthodox Art in the Bulgarian Lands from the 16th until the Late 19th Century:

Author(s): Ivanka Gergova / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2020

Dès le milieu du XXe siècle, les chercheurs bulgares s’intéressent à l’étude des œuvres d’art religieux russe qui sont arrivées dans l’aire culturelle bulgare; mais ces études n’ont jamais été menées de manière intensive. Les futures approches devront collecter, cataloguer et étudier les collections plus importantes d’icônes, d’estampes et d’objets russes de culte, en rassemblant toutes les informations nécessaires qui concernent les modalités d’acqui- sition de ces objets, leurs donateurs et leurs histoires individuelles. Une attention particulière devra être accordée aux peintres russes qui ont vécu en Bulgarie, ainsi qu’aux Bulgares qui ont étudié les arts en Russie, sachant que ces derniers ont peint des icônes après le retour en Bulgarie. L’influence de l’art orthodoxe russe sur les sujets abordés et les styles utilisés dans l’art bulgare pourra compléter ce panorama. La présente étude se propose de faire le bilan des recherches en cours.

Icons as Marketable Objects

Author(s): Katerina Seraïdari / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2020

L’étude examine les raisons pour lesquelles les icônes russes, ou imitant un style russe, sont devenues des objets à la mode, commercialisés en Grèce du milieu du XIXe au début du XXe siècle. Elle met ainsi en lumière un phénomène social : la diffusion et la popularité des icônes russes dans ce pays, mais aussi au Mont Athos – une région considérée comme étant le ‘gardien’ de la tradition orthodoxe et de l’authenticité qui faisait encore partie de l’Empire O1oman pendant l’époque en question. Les conséquences de ce1e circulation sont également analysées. Ce phénomène culturel a mené à une banalisation du commerce des icônes et à une confusion croissante entre le domaine de la spiritualité et celui des transactions économiques. La production d’icônes émerge donc comme une arène d’intérêts concurrents; ce qui révèle l’asymétrie de l’influence que la Grèce (un état récemment fondé et économiquement instable) et l’Empire russe exerçaient dans le monde orthodoxe.

Гръцката политемигрантска общност в България (1956–1983) и политиките по опазване на културното наследство

Author(s): Daniel Fokas / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2020

The article is dedicated to the Greek refugees, political emigrants, who arrived in Bulgaria in the middle of the twentieth century because of the Civil War in Greece (1946–1949). The author studies the reasons for the formation of the new community of people of Greek origin and the organizational structures that this community established with the cooperation of the Bulgarian state. Attention is drawn to the characteristic features and peculiarities of the community and the ways in which they influence its development. The focus is on the approaches for preservation and transmission of cultural tradition. The study also dwells on the development of specific set of regulations that allowed the development of amateur art among the Greeks in Bulgaria by the foundation of an educational structure and a network of clubs in the country. These activities are presented in relation with the cultural policies of the Bulgarian socialist state.

Българи в чужбина, чужденци в България: институции, организации, общностен живот. Съставителство и редакция: Мариянка Борисова, Лина Гергова, Яна Гергова, Йелис Еролова, Таня Матанова.

Author(s): Katya Zhivkova Mihaylova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2020

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