- In 1998, Vitosha Research carried out 25
quantitative and qualitative research projects, which can be
divided into four categories: public opinion surveys, social
surveys, economic surveys, and media surveys. This included more
than 10,000 face-to-face interviews, 60 in-depth interviews, 47
focus groups, and 4 telephone interviews.
- Within Coalition 2000 Vitosha Research has
been extensively engaged in the development and implementation of
the Corruption Monitoring System and the Corruption Indexes
Report.
1.Public Opinion Surveys
A total of five research projects of that type were
conducted in 1998. Four of them were based on national
representative samples and one of them was based on quota sample.
The basic topics covered were:
- Public opinion about politics and the economy;
- Elites and the changes in Bulgaria;
- Market and democratic values in the transition
period
Bulgarian Elite Survey
The survey is part of a long-term international
project aimed at studying the opinion of Bulgarian elite on social
change in the country. The main objective of this survey was to
explore some of the social, economic and political attitudes of the
Bulgarian elite.
The survey was carried out in the major cities of
Bulgaria: Sofia, Plovdiv, Bourgas, Varna, Rousse, Yambol, Kurdjali,
Lovetch, Montana. The sample included 427 representatives of the
following elite groups: government, politics, the state economic
sector, private business, public institutions, the police, army and
security, media, culture, 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
policy option are 18% of the respondents, while those who oppose
Bulgaria’s joining NATO are about 15% of the
respondents.
2.Social Research
Social research included six quantitative and
qualitative studies. Vitosha Research conducted over 2,500
face-to-face interviews, 40 in-depth interviews, and 30 focus group
discussions. The surveys focused upon:
- Non-governmental organizations and their economic
environment;
- Attitudes of citizens towards state officials;
- Protecting Women’s Rights during
Privatization.
Social and economic research projects conducted by
Vitosha Research in 1998 were commissioned by Women, Law and
Development (an NGO based in Washington D.C.), Center for Economic
Development, Democracy Network Program, Local Government
Initiative, United State Agency for International Development, and
University of Glasgow.
Protecting Women’s Rights during
Privatization
The main objective of this study was to enhance the
success of the privatization process in Poland, Russia, Ukraine and
Bulgaria through fostering citizen participation in the
privatization processes and encouraging the full utilization of
existing human resources. The study included three main
components: Enterprise Characteristic Survey, in-depth interviews
with managers, and focus group discussions. The results of this
project and the three main components identified above
included:
- Increased understanding of how privatization may
affect women in the workforce;
- Recommendation of target interventions for state
agencies, development organizations and women’s groups to undertake
in each of the four countries identified: formulate
country-specific advocacy strategies to confront the
marginalization of women in the labor force;
- Increased awareness of the benefits of maintaining
a female labor force for employers, investment and privatization
issues, local, regional and international development and women’s
organizations.
Protecting Women’s Rights during
Privatization
Women’s Labor Rights
A substantial part of the surveyed women disclose
various workplace discrimination practices. Most widespread are
abuses, especially in the private sector, of labor legislation,
like working without a proper labor contract, nonpayment of social
insurance allowances, abuse of working hours, violations or delays
of the fulfillment of agreements (e.g. non-payment of the agreed
upon remuneration, etc.). Although these practices refer to all
employed, women and especially young women with lower
qualifications and little work experience, who are forced to accept
such conditions because of economic hardship, are perceived as most
affected.
There is a firm opinion that at present women
cannot get reliable legal and social protection in cases of
discrimination, abuse of their rights or sexual harassment. The
reasons for such opinions are various. First, the legal protection
in this respect is estimated as insufficient. Second, there are no
reliable institutional mechanisms that could ensure the enforcement
of the existing rules and regulations. Third, women are not fully
aware of their rights. Fourth, the judicial system is perceived to
have low confidence. Fifth, the legal defense of one’s rights is
too costly in terms of money, time and effort, which makes it
meaningless. Sixth, the attitude predominates that personal
problems could be better solved with individual efforts and the use
of social networks. Seventh, public organizations (e.g. trade
unions, women’s NGOs, etc.) cannot effectively protect women in
cases of abuse of their rights.
Coping with Government
The project focuses on one of the most difficult and
confusing problems in the post-communist development of the
societies in Central and Eastern Europe: the interaction between
citizens and junior public officials. The University of Glasgow
commissioned CSD to conduct the Bulgarian part of a comparative
study exploring the characteristics of transitional civic culture.
The objectives of the project were:
- To find out whether corrupt practices are a problem
in the interaction between citizens and junior public officials, or
whether the old "culture of complaining" which the communist regime
encouraged as a system for controlling officials is still in
place;
- To identify coping strategies that citizens employ
when faced with unfair treatment by officials - persistence, appeal
to higher authority, to the press, to elected officials; the use of
contacts, influence, and bribery; or simply citizens’ attempts to
minimize their interaction with officials they do not trust;
- To find out whether citizens are comfortable with a
culture of briberies and influence.
The findings of the project were presented in
January 1998 at the conference Corruption as a Challenge to
Reforms in Bulgaria organized by the Political Academy for
Central and Eastern Europe and the Center for Social Practices.
Citizen Participation Projects Study
The main objective of the study was to evaluate the
effectiveness of the several citizen participation projects in
Bulgaria supported by the Institute for Sustainable Communities
(ISC), the Local Government Initiative (LGI), and the Foundation
for the Development of Civil Society, and to analyze factors which
influence the success or lack of success of these projects. Ten
citizen participation projects were pre-selected by ISC to be
studied and evaluated in the towns of Montana, Sliven, Razgrad,
Plovdiv, Pleven, Veliko Turnovo, Stara Zagora, Dobrich, and
Lovech.
Citizen Participation Projects Study
On the basis of the data collected, realistic
expectations from projects of the type of those evaluated would
involve the active civic commitment of about 1-3% of the adult
population of the municipality, involvement in specific initiatives
of up to 10-15% (participation in public discussions and meetings,
use of consultations and “open” telephone lines and “hotlines”),
and influencing 30-40% of the citizens through the media. As a
rule, the projects evaluated as most effective were those pursuing
specific objectives aimed at addressing topical regional issues in
a manner which was both sustainable and tangible to the public.
3.Economic Research
The main economic research projects of Vitosha
Research, including a total of about 2,000 face-to-face interviews,
were:
- Bulgarian Global Competitiveness Survey,
commissioned by the Center for Economic Development and conducted
for the World Economic Forum at Davos and the Harvard Institute for
International Development;
- Three sections in the Early Warning Report for
Bulgaria - a monthly report prepared for UNDP;
- Post-privatization development of medium and large
enterprises in Bulgaria conducted for the Center for Social &
Economic Research (CASE), Poland.
Bulgarian Global Competitiveness Survey
The main objective of the study was to present
information from managers of Bulgarian and foreign companies about
their evaluation of the status of different components of the
business climate in the country and to identify the level of
competitiveness of Bulgarian enterprises.
The study involved interviews with the senior
managers of 134 Bulgarian companies (private and state) and 21
foreign companies. The results of the survey provided valuable
information about the state of the economy and the existing
opportunities for export oriented growth. The survey method
employed was face-to-face interviews for Bulgarian companies and
mail-in survey for foreign companies.
Post-privatization Development of Medium and
Large Enterprises in Bulgaria
The survey was carried out in cooperation with the
Center for Economic Development, the Agency for Economic Analysis
and Forecasts, and the Center for Social and Economic Research
(CASE) in Warsaw. The objective of this survey was to trace the
post-privatization development of companies which were privatized
before the end of 1996. The results of the survey will be used by
the government to assess the post-privatization development of
enterprises and to support the effort to further accelerate
structural reform in Bulgaria.
Early Warning Report for Bulgaria
The system of monthly reports explores the
possibility of anticipating and responding to crisis situations
before they become too violent or to mitigate the effects of crisis
situations as they evolve. This type of data collection combined
with monthly reporting is unique for Bulgaria as it develops
predictive capabilities and enhances informed judgments about
possible sequences of social events and their outcomes.
The project for the development of a system of early
warning reports in Bulgaria which was initiated by the United
Nations Development Program (UNDP) in November 1997 has continued
throughout 1998. Work on the project is being carried out by CSD,
the Department of International Relations Association, BBSS Gallup,
and Club Ekonomika 2000. Project activities include:
- Designing a system of interrelated indicators aimed
at monthly monitoring of the dynamics of the overall economic,
social, political, religious and ethnic environment in
Bulgaria;
- Developing an effective frame for data gathering
and communication networks. Currently, the information is based on
monthly opinion polls, data from Bulgarian governmental
institutions and publications in the press;
- Summarizing the findings of the monitoring system
and preparing monthly Early Warning Reports;
- Dissemination of the Early Warning Reports and
bringing the information to the attention of all interested parties
including potentially affected actors.
4.Corruption Assessment
The basic responsibility of Vitosha Research within
the Coalition 2000 initiative has been the development and
the implementation of the Corruption Monitoring System (CMS) of the
coalition. The CMS includes a system of empirical studies and
analytical reports. Its main objective is to periodically present
information which would enable the drawing of conclusions about the
scope of corruption in the country and about related public
attitudes, assessments and expectations.
In the period July-September 1998, the first
quantitative and qualitative surveys of the CMS were conducted. The
national representative survey of June 1998 replicated some
indicators that had been employed in earlier surveys. The
comparative analysis outlines the structure and dynamics of public
perceptions of corruption focusing on the principal characteristics
of corrupt behavior, the modes of reproduction of corrupt practices
and the social factors generating corruption. In order to better
perceive the qualitative aspects of corrupt practices, three types
of focus groups were conducted: with public officials, with
businessmen and managers and with experts. Representatives of
different groups of public officials participated in the focus
groups - central and local administration, health system,
education, police, judicial system, social care, tax administration
and customs, etc. The qualitative research on corrupt practices
also included 20 in-depth interviews with policy makers.
Their main objective was to explore respondents' assessments of
corrupt practices, the prerequisites of corruption, the mechanisms
of corrupt practices, etc.
The first analytic report - Coalition 2000
Corruption Indexes - which is a quarterly publication
summarizing the findings of the CMS surveys was prepared in
November 1998 for the Policy Forum of Coalition 2000. It
includes baseline values for the following principal aspects of
corruption and corrupt practices in Bulgaria: attitudes towards
corruption; involvement in corrupt practices; assessments of the
scope of corruption; and corruption-related expectations. Findings
reported in the Coalition 2000 Corruption Indexes
have also been published at the web site of Coalition 2000
(www.online.bg/coalition2000) and have received broad public
attention.
Public Opinion on Corruption in Bulgaria, 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.
5.Media Research
In 1998 a total of three quantitative and two
qualitative media research projects were conducted. They included
focus groups, face-to-face interviews and desk research. The media
research projects focused upon:
- Assessment of the audience of Radio Vitosha;
- RFE programming evaluation;
- Structure and dynamics of attitudes towards the
media in Bulgaria.
The media research projects were commissioned by
InterMedia Survey, Washington D.C. and Vitosha Radio, Sofia.
Confidence in Bulgarian media (%)
|
Bulgarian National
Television
|
Bulgarian National
Radio
|
Newspapers and
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.
6.Publications
Research findings have been widely disseminated in
the press. More than 15 newspaper articles have been published in
the papers with national distribution. The following analytic
reports and working papers were also prepared in 1998:
- Attitudes towards Social Justice, January 1998
- The Value System of Transition, January 1998
- Public Confidence in Institutions in the Period of
Transition, February 1998
- Citizen Participation Projects Study, April
1998
- Corruption as a Problem of Bulgarian Society, May
1998
- Public Opinion on Corruption in Bulgaria, July
1998
- Public Opinion on NATO (September 1997 - May 1998),
July 1998
- Structure and Dynamics of Attitudes towards Media
in Bulgaria, July 1998
- Women’s Rights during Privatization, December
1998
- Corruption Assessment Index, November 1998
|