5 - The Naysayer: Bulgaria

Summary

This chapter assesses the case of Bulgaria, a country that enacted a ban on shale gas in 2012. The investigation reveals a combination of poorly designed institutional procedures coupled with low administrative capacity and a top-down policy processes which excluded and even alienated key stakeholders. This applies not only to societal groups, NGOs and environmental movements, but also industry players, including state run corporations that stood to lose out. In addition, the government failed to put forward a convincing narrative in support of its policy goals. As a consequence, its framing efforts pertaining to security gains and economic benefits saw a low 'ideational uptake' among important stakeholders within the Bulgarian society and the economy, and eventually had to give way to competing policy narratives that united a broad opposition against shale.