**Democracy as an Effort**

**Rayna Gavrilova, CEE Trust**

**USAID/Bulgaria Closing Ceremony**

**October 10, 2007, Sofia**

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

When I was invited to say a few words at the official closing of the
United States Agency for International Development in Bulgaria, the
first title that came to my mind was "Democracy as an Effort." When
change began, democracy for us was mostly about revolution -- from
Portugal's Carnation Revolution, to Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution,
to Ukraine's Orange Revolution. Eighteen years later, we already realize
that democracy is most of all a constant effort made by citizens and
institutions. The post-communist countries, including Bulgaria, were
lucky not to have been left alone in this process. The international
assistance for laying the foundations of liberal democracy and market
economy came early and was timely. The United States was among the first
countries to get involved. American public organizations such as USAID,
non-governmental organizations and an impressive number of individuals
made a long-lasting and systematic effort to elucidate and support this
social order which, without doubt, remains the choice of the larger part
of humanity.

USAID left visible traces in Bulgarian social life. Today we hardly
remember it, but through their programs a whole variety of previously
unknown concepts, such as "rule of law," "local government initiative,"
"transparency", and "entrepreneurship promotion" entered the Bulgarian
vocabulary and practice, and are today the foundation of the state. Some
of the terms which had no equivalent in the rigid vocabulary of
socialism remain untranslated even today: probation, mediation,
microcredit. Nonetheless, real and recognizable models of social
interrelations were established and took root behind them. Other key
concepts are still waiting for our society to mature enough in order to
work out its own formulations: "constituency" is not the same as voters,
and "accountability" is not just a bookkeeper's term.

USAID was, of course, much more than an educational program. The ideas
for reforms were fueled with the powerful financial support of the
American taxpayer. This was directed toward governmental and
non-governmental organizations and through it the pillars of democratic
life started to acquire some density. As a person who has been involved
in securing financial support for community initiatives for more than
five years now, I would like to emphasize an important peculiarity.
USAID's programs were concrete, systematic, and long-term. It was
exactly that steady, persistent insistence on seemingly formal norms and
practices, the repetition of certain types of approaches, the investment
in a circle of partners, that yielded the results we can see today. The
program assisted the creation and strengthening of governmental and
non-governmental institutions that turned into the material bearers of
ideas. The Foundation for Local Government Reform, the Center for the
Study of Democracy, and the community foundations in Stara Zagora,
Pazardzhik, Gabrovo, Yambol, and Chepelare are just a few of the
prominent long-term partners of the American program. Scores of people
who are the real social capital, the human legacy of the initiative,
were prepared in the course of that work, and they not only keep, but
magnify, distribute, and stabilize the presence of ideas.

To extol USAID is far from my intention. There are perhaps mediocre
results and even clear failures among the enormous number of supported
projects. That is a part of the work of every organization. From the
point of view of Bulgarian society, however, the failures were in some
sense as important as the successes. The grand social project to
transform the overall economic, social, and political model passes
through trial and error, through adaptation of the principles and forms
of developed democracies to the local environment and traditions. The
usefulness of that experience became particularly evident as a second
mighty power -- the European Union -- engaged itself with supporting
democratization in the post-communist countries. In the beginning of the
accession talks, Bulgaria already had an experience with many
initiatives and projects key to membership, already tested or initiated
with the help of USAID.

I will close my remarks with a somewhat unusual emphasis on still
incomplete processes. Today, Bulgaria has a decent legal structure and a
dynamic economy. What we still lack is the awareness of what it means to
live in a democracy -- that thing which we call political, legal, and
economic culture. Acquiring that awareness is part of the notion of
democracy as an effort, which I began with. Pessimists consider that
generations have to pass in order to fulfill that goal. We, the
optimists, saw that a well-strategized program with thoughtful financial
support can achieve dramatic development. After our American partners
leave, the baton should be taken by all of us who remain -- the
Bulgarian institutions and the Bulgarian civil society. The government
has to be an example of effectiveness and adherence to the principles of
the lawful state, and of ethics and the sense of responsibility alike.
The responsibility to ensure justice for all citizens. The
responsibility to provide material support to other countries which are
still at the outset of democratization. The responsibility to create
conditions for the existence of an active civil society -- not only the
legal framework, but also the mechanisms for financial support to
organizations that uphold human rights, fight against corruption, and
promote citizen participation in decision-making. And the
non-governmental organizations, on their part, have to prove that the
generous assistance of our American partners has helped strengthen
democracy's sole guarantor -- civil society.

Thank you for your attention.