This article analyses the emergence and development of different forms of civil society in Bulgaria from the late 1980s to the present day, focusing on ngos and the large anti-government protests in 1989–1991, 1997, and 2013–2014. It shows that civil society has been developing in ebbs and flows, its main actors having alt-civic and fake doubles: nationalist movements and fake counter-protests. Recent developments indicate a clear trend of transition from representative to direct democracy, which coincides with the populist orientation of most parties. This coincidence is dangerous because populist parties, following the romantic tradition, reinvented the figure of “the people” as traditionalistic, nationalistic, and conservative. “Civil society,” seen as “alien,” was constructed as an enemy of “the people.” The author argues that defending the pluralistic values of civil society against the thus-invented “people,” is the main challenge to democracy in Bulgaria today.

本文分析了从1980年代末至今的保加利亚不同形式的民间社会的出现和发展，重点是ngo以及1989-1991年，1997年和2013-2014年的大规模反政府抗议活动。它表明，公民社会正在发展，其起伏不定，其主要参与者有双重公民和伪造的双重身份：民族主义运动和伪造的反抗议活动。最近的事态发展表明了从代议制向直接民主制过渡的明显趋势，这与大多数政党的民粹主义倾向是一致的。这种巧合是危险的，因为民粹主义政党遵循浪漫主义传统，将“人民”的形象重新塑造为传统主义，民族主义和保守派。被视为“外国人”的“公民社会”被构筑为“人民”的敌人。作者认为，抵御由此发明的“人民”捍卫公民社会的多元化价值观，是当今保加利亚民主的主要挑战。