The Pursuit of Unhappiness: The Puzzle of Bulgaria's Transitional Pessimism

Abstract

After a decade of economic growth, relative political stability, and a much desired admission to the EU, Bulgarian public opinion remains marked by deep pessimism, life dissatisfaction, and mistrust of others and of public institutions. This negative trend cannot be attributed mostly to mass misperceptions. It can be understood better with reference to Emile Durkheim’s and Karl Polanyi’s analyses of the acute social crisis experienced by many societies undergoing modernization and a transition to a market economy, as well as John Stuart Mill’s emphasis on the need to control excessively aggressive and anti-social individuals under any form of government.