site.btaGallup International: Nearly Half of Bulgarians Tend to Blame State for their Problems

108 PUBLIC OPINION - GALLUP - SURVEY

Gallup International:
Nearly Half of Bulgarians Tend
to Blame State for their Problems


August 21 (BTA) - As many as 46 per cent of Bulgarians are inclined to blame the State for their own problems, Gallup International found in a survey conducted among 839 persons aged over 18 between August 2 and 9, 2019.

Those who disagreed with this statement were 42 per cent, and 12 per cent had no opinion.

Bulgarian society is thus equally split between those who blame the State for their problems and those who don't, the sociologists comment.

The youngest respondents (aged between 18 and 26, i.e. born after 1989 when democratic changes began) seem more inclined to blame themselves rather than the State for their problems.

An overwhelming 68 per cent believe that what matters most in life is fairness rather than legality, 19 per cent say this statement does not apply to them, and 13 per cent don't know. Society clearly proceeds from a sense of sound reason in its moral criteria rather than from the letter of the law, the analysts note.

A large part of people tend to adjust their behaviour by the opinion of others, even if they do not realize it. Fifty-seven per cent of those polled said they take notice of what the others think about them, 38 per cent insisted that the opinion of others was irrelevant, and 5 per cent had no opinion on the matter.

The opinion of others is an important public regulator for all age groups: both the youngest and the oldest attach importance to public opinion. Still, the older ones are more inclined to agree that the opinion of others is important to them.

Against the background of the rest of the institutions, the Orthodox Church enjoys relatively high levels of public trust, the survey found. After brief hesitations and moments of crisis triggered by various scandals involving certain members of the clergy, trust in the church has been a steady 40 to 50 per cent since Patriarch Neophyte's election in 2013 and, on the whole, outlasts mistrust. IG/LG
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