The fireman’s ball in Bulgaria? A comparison between Sergey Stanishev and Boyko Borisov

Bankov, P. (2020) The fireman’s ball in Bulgaria? A comparison between Sergey Stanishev and Boyko Borisov. In: Gherghina, S. (ed.) Party Leaders in Eastern Europe: Personality, Behavior and Consequences. Series: Palgrave studies in political psychology. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, pp. 43-66. ISBN 9783030320249 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-32025-6_3)

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the case of Bulgaria by comparing the leaderships of Sergey Stanishev, leader of the major center-left Bulgarian Socialist Party (2001–2014), and Boyko Borisov, leader of the main center-right party, Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (2010 onwards). The study shows that their personality traits have a noticeable negative impact on the electoral support, internal party cohesion and activity, especially in periods when these leaders concentrated power around themselves. In contrast, it was the times when both leaders shared internal and/or external authority that were of major electoral and organizational benefit for the two parties. Furthermore, this chapter shows that the impact of the leaders’ personality traits could not be understood without analyzing also their roles as officeholders. In Stanishev’s and Borisov’s cases their positions as prime ministers and leaders of the opposition illuminated their personality weaknesses and had significant effects for their parties.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Bankov, Dr Petar
• Authors: Bankov, P.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• ISBN: 9783030320249
• Published Online: 24 November 2019