Technologies vs ideas at a time of a political crisis: The Bulgarian case

Having appeared on the political scene in Bulgaria as an anti-elitist formation, in the long years of its rule (2009 – 2021) GERB normalised populism, including through de facto coalitions with far-right nationalist parties. In this de-ideologised environment, politics killed policy-making for the benefit of citizens. Ineffective governance and corruption provoked mass protests in 2020 demanding the resignation of the government. Although the GERB government formally survived until the regular elections, over the next two years Bulgaria fell into a deepening crisis. One regular and a series of early elections failed to create a stable government. The protests gave birth to a number of pop-up political projects covering a wide spectrum of populist manifestations, but emptied of ideas and ideological content. This contribution aims to explore the role of technology in the five electoral campaigns in Bulgaria between 2022 and 2023. Far from classic electoral campaigns relying on a clash of ideas and policy proposals, participants relied on content creation and technological mechanisms in search of voters. Early research on the role of Internet innovation in political campaigns was marked by peaks of idealism and disillusionment. The debate between cyberoptimists and cyberpessimists is unceasing, but as technology has evolved, the importance of the Internet in political campaign strategies have become more profound. In the new digitized environment, populists have gained a disproportionate advantage compared to how they use traditional media and compared to how established parties or political movements use media in general. Moreover, by thriving in new media ecosystems, populist voices in European democracies have established themselves as major political actors. Thus, societies seem to be facing a serious challenge of dealing with two simulations of reality. The authors’ hypothesis is that in a highly de-ideologized and populism-dominated political environment, technology cannot contribute to the strengthening of the democratic process, but on the contrary reinforces the emptying of the political process of political ideas. Ultimately, this trend has been shown to overwhelm the negative tendencies threatening the quality of democracy. On the one side is the wave of populism that is flooding societies, de-ideologising them through empty messages and dysfunctional policies. On the other side stands artificial intelligence, which is becoming ever more sophisticated at mimicking reality. This combination confronts democracies with a challenge they have not faced in the past - the need for a serious effort in raising public awareness of the potential presence of manipulated content.