35 Vitosha Research

• In 1998, Vitosha Research carried out 25 • Public opinion about politics and the quantitative and qualitative research economy; projects, which can be divided into four • Elites and the changes in ; categories: public opinion surveys, social • Market and democratic values in the surveys, economic surveys, and media transition period surveys. This included more than 10,000 face-to-face interviews, 60 in-depth inter- Bulgarian Elite Survey views, 47 focus groups, and 4 telephone interviews. The survey is part of a longterm interna- • Within Coalition 2000 Vitosha Research tional project aimed at studying the opi- has been extensively engaged in the nion of Bulgarian elite on social change in development and implementation of the the country. The main objective of this sur- Corruption Monitoring System and the vey was to explore some of the social, eco- Corruption Indexes Report. nomic and political attitudes of the Bulgarian elite. The survey was carried out in the major I. Public Opinion Surveys cities of Bulgaria: , Plovdiv, Bourgas, Varna, Rousse, Yambol, Kurdjali, Lovetch, A total of five research projects of that type Montana. The sample included 427 repre- were conducted in 1998. Four of them sentatives of the following elite groups: were based on national representative government, politics, the state economic samples and one of them was based on sector, private business, public institutions, quota sample. The basic topics covered the police, army and security, media, cul- were: ture, science and religion.

Bulgarian Elite Survey Bulgaria should join NATO

The attitudes of the Bulgarian elite towards NATO are definitely positive. About half of the respondents support Bulgaria’s joining NATO. The moderate supporters of this poli- cy option are 18% of the respondents, while those who oppose Bulgaria’s joining NATO are about 15% of the respondents. 36

II. Social Research ginalization of women in the labor force; Social research included six quantitative • Increased awareness of the benefits of and qualitative studies. Vitosha Research maintaining a female labor force for conducted over 2,500 face-to-face inter- employers, investment and privatiza- views, 40 in-depth interviews, and 30 tion issues, local, regional and interna- focus group discussions. The surveys tional development and women’s focused upon: organizations.

• Non-governmental organizations and their economic environment; Protecting Women’s Rights during • Attitudes of citizens towards state offi- Privatization cials; • Protecting women’s rights during pri- Women’s Labor Rights vatization. A substantial part of the surveyed Social and economic research projects con- women disclose various workplace ducted by Vitosha Research in 1998 were discrimination practices. Most wide- commissioned by Women, Law and spread are abuses, especially in the Development (an NGO based in private sector, of labor legislation, Washington D.C.), Center for Economic like working without a proper labor Development, Democracy Network contract, nonpayment of social insur- Program, Local Government Initiative, ance allowances, abuse of working United State Agency for International hours, violations or delays of the ful- Development, and University of Glasgow. fillment of agreements (e.g. non-pay- ment of the agreed upon remunera- Protecting Women’s Rights during tion, etc.). Although these practices Privatization refer to all employed, women are perceived as most affected, especial- The main objective of this study was to ly young women with lower qualifi- enhance the success of the privatization cations and little work experience, process in Poland, Russia, Ukraine and who are forced to accept such condi- Bulgaria through fostering citizen partici- tions because of economic hardship. pation in the privatization processes and encouraging the full utilization of existing There is a firm opinion that at pres- human resources. The study included three ent women cannot get reliable legal main components: enterprise characteristic and social protection in cases of dis- survey, indepth interviews with managers, crimination, abuse of their rights or and focus group discussions. The results of sexual harassment. The reasons for this project and the three main components such opinions are various. First, the identified above included: legal protection in this respect is esti- mated as insufficient. Second, there • Increased understanding of how priva- are no reliable institutional mecha- tization may affect women in the work- nisms that could ensure the enforce- force; ment of the existing rules and regu- • Recommendation of target interven- lations. Third, women are not fully tions for state agencies, development aware of their rights. Fourth, the organizations and women’s groups to judicial system is perceived to have undertake in each of the four countries low confidence. Fifth, the legal identified: formulate country-specific defense of one’s rights is too costly in advocacy strategies to confront the mar- 37

Citizen Participation Projects Study terms of money, time and effort, which makes it meaningless. Sixth, The main objective of the study was to the attitude predominates that per- evaluate the effectiveness of the several sonal problems could be better citizen participation projects in Bulgaria solved with individual efforts and supported by the Institute for Sustainable the use of social networks. Seventh, Communities (ISC), the Local public organizations (e.g. trade Government Initiative (LGI), and the unions, women’s NGOs, etc.) cannot Foundation for the Development of Civil effectively protect women in cases of Society, and to analyze factors which abuse of their rights. influence the success or lack of success of these projects. Ten citizen participation projects were pre-selected by ISC to be Coping with Government studied and evaluated in the towns of Montana, Sliven, Razgrad, Plovdiv, The project focuses on one of the most dif- Pleven, Veliko Turnovo, Stara Zagora, ficult and confusing problems in the post- Dobrich, and Lovech. communist development of the societies in Central and Eastern Europe: the interac- tion between citizens and junior public Citizen Participation Projects Study officials. The University of Glasgow com- missioned CSD to conduct the Bulgarian On the basis of the data collected, part of a comparative study exploring the realistic expectations from projects of characteristics of transitional civic culture. the type of those evaluated would The objectives of the project were: involve the active civic commitment of about 1-3% of the adult popula- • To find out whether corrupt practices tion of the municipality, involvement are a problem in the interaction in specific initiatives of up to 10-15% between citizens and junior public offi- (participation in public discussions cials, or whether the old “culture of and meetings, use of consultations complaining” which the communist and “open” telephone lines and regime encouraged as a system for con- “hotlines”), and influencing 30-40% trolling officials is still in place; of the citizens through the media. As • To identify coping strategies that citi- a rule, the projects evaluated as most zens employ when faced with unfair effective were those pursuing specif- treatment by officials - persistence, ic objectives aimed at addressing appeal to higher authority, to the press, topical regional issues in a manner to elected officials; the use of contacts, which was both sustainable and tan- influence, and bribery; or simply citi- gible to the public. zens’ attempts to minimize their inter- action with officials they do not trust; • To find out whether citizens are com- III. Economic Research fortable with a culture of briberies and influence. The main economic research projects of Vitosha Research, including a total of about The findings of the project were presented 2,000 face-to-face interviews, were: in January 1998 at the conference Corruption as a Challenge to Reforms in • Bulgarian Global Competitiveness Bulgaria organized by the Political Survey, commissioned by the Center for Academy for Central and Eastern Europe Economic Development and conducted and the Center for Social Practices. for the World Economic Forum at Davos 38 and the Harvard Institute for International Early Warning Report for Bulgaria Development; • Three sections in the Early Warning The system of monthly reports explores Report for Bulgaria - a monthly report the possibility of anticipating and prepared for UNDP; responding to crisis situations before they • Post-privatization development of become too violent or to mitigate the medium and large enterprises in effects of crisis situations as they evolve. Bulgaria conducted for the Center for This type of data collection combined with Social & Economic Research (CASE), monthly reporting is unique for Bulgaria Poland. as it develops predictive capabilities and enhances informed judgments about pos- Bulgarian Global Competitiveness sible sequences of social events and their Survey outcomes.

The main objective of the study was to The project for the development of a sys- present information from managers of tem of early warning reports in Bulgaria Bulgarian and foreign companies about which was initiated by the United Nations their evaluation of the status of different Development Program (UNDP) in components of the business climate in the November 1997 has continued throughout country and to identify the level of compet- 1998. Work on the project is being carried itiveness of Bulgarian enterprises. out by CSD, the Department of International Relations Association, BBSS The study involved interviews with the Gallup, and Club Ekonomika 2000. Project senior managers of 134 Bulgarian compa- activities include: nies (private and state) and 21 foreign companies. The results of the survey pro- • Designing a system of interrelated indi- vided valuable information about the state cators aimed at monthly monitoring of of the economy and the existing opportu- the dynamics of the overall economic, nities for export oriented growth. The sur- social, political, religious and ethnic vey method employed was face-to-face environment in Bulgaria; interviews for Bulgarian companies and • Developing an effective frame for data mail-in survey for foreign companies. gathering and communication net- works. Currently, the information is Post-privatization Development of based on monthly opinion polls, data Medium and Large Enterprises in from Bulgarian governmental institu- Bulgaria tions and publications in the press; • Summarizing the findings of the moni- The survey was carried out in cooperation toring system and preparing monthly with the Center for Economic Early Warning Reports; Development, the Agency for Economic • Dissemination of the Early Warning Analysis and Forecasts, and the Center for Reports and bringing the information to Social and Economic Research (CASE), the attention of all interested parties Warsaw. The objective of this survey was including potentially affected actors. to trace the post-privatization develop- ment of companies which were privatized before the end of 1996. The results of the IV. Corruption Assessment survey will be used by the government to assess the post-privatization development The basic responsibility of Vitosha of enterprises and to support the effort to Research within the Coalition 2000 initia- further accelerate structural reform in tive has been the development and the Bulgaria. implementation of the Corruption 39

Monitoring System (CMS) of the coalition. groups - central and local administration, The CMS includes a system of empirical health system, education, police, judicial studies and analytical reports. Its main system, social care, tax administration and objective is to periodically present infor- customs, etc. The qualitative research on mation which would enable the drawing corrupt practices also included 20 in-depth of conclusions about the scope of corrup- interviews with policy makers. Their main tion in the country and about related pub- objective was to explore respondents’ lic attitudes, assessments and expecta- assessments of corrupt practices, the pre- tions. requisites of corruption, the mechanisms of corrupt practices, etc. In the period July-September 1998, the first quantitative and qualitative surveys The first analytic report - Coalition 2000 of the CMS were conducted. The national Corruption Indexes - which is a quarterly representative survey of June 1998 replicat- publication summarizing the findings of ed some indicators that had been the CMS surveys was prepared in employed in earlier surveys. The compar- November 1998 for the Policy Forum of ative analysis outlines the structure and Coalition 2000. It includes baseline values dynamics of public perceptions of corrup- for the following principal aspects of cor- tion focusing on principal characteristics ruption and corrupt practices in Bulgaria: of corrupt behavior, the modes of repro- attitudes towards corruption; involve- duction of corrupt practices and the social ment in corrupt practices; assessments of factors generating corruption. In order to the scope of corruption; and corruption- better perceive the qualitative aspects of related expectations. Findings reported in corrupt practices, three types of focus groups the Coalition 2000 Corruption Indexes have were conducted: with public officials, with also been published at the web site of businessmen and managers and with Coalition 2000 (www.online.bg/coali- experts. Representatives of different groups tion2000) and have received broad public of public officials participated in the focus attention.

Public Opinion on , June 1998 The Corruption Indexes

Corruption assessment index numbers assume values from 1-10. The closer the value of the index is to 10, the more negative is the assessment of the status of the respective dimension of corrupt practices. Index numbers closer to 0 indicate approximation to the ideal of a “corruption-free” society. 40

V. Media Research

In 1998 a total of three quantitative and two • RFE programming evaluation; qualitative media research projects were conducted. They included focus groups, • Structure and dynamics of attitudes face-to-face interviews and desk research. towards media in Bulgaria. The media research projects focused upon: The media research projects were commis- • Assessment of the audience of sioned by InterMedia Survey, Washington Vitosha; D.C. and Vitosha Radio, Sofia.

Attitudes towards in Bulgaria

Confidence in Bulgarian media (%)

Bulgarian Bulgarian Newspapers National National and Radio Magazines Completely trust 29 25 13 Somewhat trust 54 53 50 Somewhat distrust 9 10 18 Completely distrust 2 2 4 DK/NA 6 10 16

• Trust in the media is several times higher than distrust which shows that the Bulgarian public respects the “fourth power”;

• On the whole, trust in electronic media is substantially higher than trust in print media. Distrust in newspapers and magazines is two times higher than distrust in the Bulgarian National Television and Radio. 41

VI. Publications

Research findings have been widely dis- • Citizen Participation Projects Study, seminated in the press. More than 15 news- April 1998 paper articles have been published in the • Corruption as a Problem of Bulgarian papers with national distribution. The fol- Society, May 1998 lowing analytic reports and working • Public Opinion on Corruption in papers were also prepared in 1998: Bulgaria, July 1998 • Public Opinion on NATO (September • Attitudes towards Social Justice, 1997 - May 1998), July 1998 January 1998 • Structure and Dynamics of Attitudes • The Value System of Transition, January towards Media in Bulgaria, July 1998 1998 • Women’s Rights during Privatization, • Public Confidence in Institutions in December 1998 the Period of Transition, February 1998 • Corruption Assessment Index, November 1998

Vitosha Research staff.