Bulgaria has been deindustrialized by interest groups who extracted state assets like oil states extract the oil in their ground.

Authoritarianism is not pretending anymore to be a real alternative to democracy, but we can see many more authoritarian practices and styles basically being smuggled into democratic governments.

[It's] difficult to engage people in politics when they believe that what really matters is where they personally stand.

Before, revolutions used to have ideological names. They could be communist, they could be liberal, they could be fascist or Islamic. Now, the revolutions are called under the medium which is most used. You have Facebook revolutions, Twitter revolutions. The content doesn't matter anymore - the problem is the media.

Transparency is not about restoring trust in institutions. Transparency is the politics of managing mistrust.

Democracy is the only game in town. The problem is [when] people start to believe that it is not a game worth playing.

The Church of TED is very optimistic. Bulgarians are some of the most pessimistic in the world. There are the Happy, the Unhappy and the Bulgarians.