Структурни предизвикателства в България пред приложимостта на теорията за ценностните полярности на демокрацията
Structural Challenges in Bulgaria to the Applicability of the Polarities of Democracy Theory

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the results of a pilot empirical study focused on the applicability in contemporary Bulgaria of William Benet’s polarities of democracy theory at organizations level. The pilot study compares three typologically different organizations – secondary schools, non-profit organizations and companies in the digital services sector. The results of the approbation of the approach of leverage of polar democratic values reveal that today in our country there are huge shortages of democratic practices introduced at organizations level. At the same time, the participants in the study simultaneously express: 1) a desire for more democratization of internal organizational life and 2) skepticism about the effectiveness and efficiency of democratic approaches to the management of the organizations they belong to. The paper provides arguments in support of the thesis that the “leverage of democracy values” approach is extremely relevant to the democratic development of the studied organizations, but that Benet’s five pairs of democratic values are rather not recognized in the current Bulgarian socio-cultural context as relevant value poles, between which organizations oscillate constantly. The pilot survey comes to the conclusion that not so much the “conscious leverage of value poles”, but rather the empowerment of the members of the studied institutions, the competitive environment and the establishment of a system of mutual control and power balance are prerequisites for democratization of the typologically different organizations included in the research.

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