In the period May 18 - June 10, 2024, the Values, Virtues, Integrity Foundation (VVIF) had a top visit: our guest was the American scientist and researcher Dr. William J. Bennet, founder of the Polarities of Democracy Institute, a think tank organization based in the USA. Dr. Benet is the author of the theory of the polarities of democracy, in which he examines 10 basic values of democracy, presented as 5 interrelated pairs of polarities: Freedom and Authority; Justice and Due Process; Diversity and Equality; Human Rights and Communal Obligations; Participation and Representation. The heuristic power of his method is that it is necessary to use "and-thinking" instead of "or-thinking" in order to be able to adequately leverage the polarities and, accordingly, embody in public life the positive sides of each of their seemingly conflicting viewpoints. Because each value has positive and negative potential, and therefore emphasizing only one of the poles of the polarity to the neglect of the other ultimately leads to the manifestation of the negative sides of the favored pole, the polar pair, and the entire system of polarities. In Bulgaria, we are kings of sowing and reaping the negatives of polar pairs (and as a result, for example, we have neither individual freedom nor legitimate power), but it is quite possible, with understanding and a balanced approach, to pick the good fruits of each and all polarities of democracy.

Bill's visit to Sofia included a series of meetings and discussions with representatives of academia, non-governmental organizations and civil and political activists. It was in response to the job-shadowing visit of two representatives of the Values, Virtues, Integrity Foundation to Washington, DC in September 2023. A memorandum of cooperation has been signed between the Foundation and the Polarities of Democracy Institute and common initiatives are already underway to popularize the innovative and impactful know-how of the institute in Bulgaria and Europe.