The transition away from political and ideological totalitarianism – away from the characteristic organization of its relations, as an economy and as a military bloc, with the rest of the world – is of an unprecedented kind. It posed and is still posing many questions, for which historical science does not have ready answers. The changes involved represent a phenomenon of civilization.

Because of this and due to the lack of sufficient historicalsociological reflection on the past period, some people decided that the simple political erasure (a rather formal one in the Bulgarian case) of the previous system was enough to place the
respective countries (and their societies) in new, equal conditions, whichh would permit sustainable advance. But as the start of the changes recedes in time, significant differences emerge between the various countries moving on this road; they are now placed in quite varying situations within the system of world division of labour and in global politics. The large lag of Bulgaria on this road has raised many questions in the last five years; some of the reflections on these questions have grown into permanent attitudes of mass consciousness.

The answer to the question ‘why this lag?’ is sought at several levels of Bulgarian sociology. Some believe the lag is due to the rigidity of society, provoked by a bipolar political confrontation. Others feel it is a direct result of the actions of
incompetent politicians. Or a result of the application of inadequate transition models. In each of these answers there is some part of truth; but I think that all of them are, at least, not complete enough.

The inadequacy of the basic perspectives for explaining the......

(целият текст - в книгата)