Suchergebnisse

In this master thesis, regarding the recently in the Lithuania observed lack of citizens interest in politics and trust in the elected representatives, the hypothesis is held, that the Lithuanians voters decide to go to the pools on the basis of expressive motivations (the expressive motivations to go to vote in this theses are defined as the motivations, when citizen decide to go to the pools first of all because the very act of the voting has a value to him, not because he expect the concrete benefit from the election results, when the winning party or candidate will implement their policy). To examine this is the objective of this thesis. First of all the existing theories on the citizens' turnout motivations are reviewed, analyzed and classified, then the feasible model of the citizens motivation to vote are constructed on the basis of the extended rational choice theory. The main distinction is made between the instrumental and expressive voters turnout motivations. Thought in this thesis it is not aimed to evaluate the expressive motivations normatively, the possible sequences of the voting, when the turnout is conditioned by this kind of reasons, is objectively discussed. The conclusion is made that the broader outcomes of the expressive motivations highly depends on the specific kind of motivation from this group, but generally, one could state, that expressive motivations (certain kinds of them) can damage democratic quality, but definitely helps to sustain this kind of political regime. For the further analysis along the constructed turnout motivations model, the block of the survey questions was designed. The representative population survey was held in the end of March – beginning of the April of 2008 and the data provided by it is used in the succeeding research. Eight possible turnout motivations are defined: two instrumental (going to vote first of all because of the intension to elect the representatives of the voters interest, and the intension through the results of the election to resolve the topical issue voter cares about) ant six expressive motivations (going to vote because of the sense of civic duty, loyalty to the preferred political party or candidate, desire just to express one's will in the state ruling processes, solidarity to other members of one's social environment, pleasure to socialize with other community members during the voting process and going to the pools just for entertaining). In order to separate these two highly related motivation groups, the cleavage is incorporated and the concrete conditions which have to be fulfilled during the survey data's analysis in order to claim the prime existence of one or another motivation are defined. As expected, the existence of the expressive turnout motivations among Lithuanian voters is confirmed. Among them the most common, most popular motivations are going to the pools because of the desire to express the loyalty and support for the preferred political party or candidate (even if it is not expected that they can win), to express one's will in the state governing process, and going to the pools just because of the sense of duty. The more popular instrumental motivation, as it is found, is going to vote because of the desire to elect ones representative, but the most often both of the instrumental motivations are reported. Making the comparison, with some precaution one could say that the expressive motivations of turnout are even more often than the instrumental among Lithuanian voters.

In this master thesis, regarding the recently in the Lithuania observed lack of citizens interest in politics and trust in the elected representatives, the hypothesis is held, that the Lithuanians voters decide to go to the pools on the basis of expressive motivations (the expressive motivations to go to vote in this theses are defined as the motivations, when citizen decide to go to the pools first of all because the very act of the voting has a value to him, not because he expect the concrete benefit from the election results, when the winning party or candidate will implement their policy). To examine this is the objective of this thesis. First of all the existing theories on the citizens' turnout motivations are reviewed, analyzed and classified, then the feasible model of the citizens motivation to vote are constructed on the basis of the extended rational choice theory. The main distinction is made between the instrumental and expressive voters turnout motivations. Thought in this thesis it is not aimed to evaluate the expressive motivations normatively, the possible sequences of the voting, when the turnout is conditioned by this kind of reasons, is objectively discussed. The conclusion is made that the broader outcomes of the expressive motivations highly depends on the specific kind of motivation from this group, but generally, one could state, that expressive motivations (certain kinds of them) can damage democratic quality, but definitely helps to sustain this kind of political regime. For the further analysis along the constructed turnout motivations model, the block of the survey questions was designed. The representative population survey was held in the end of March – beginning of the April of 2008 and the data provided by it is used in the succeeding research. Eight possible turnout motivations are defined: two instrumental (going to vote first of all because of the intension to elect the representatives of the voters interest, and the intension through the results of the election to resolve the topical issue voter cares about) ant six expressive motivations (going to vote because of the sense of civic duty, loyalty to the preferred political party or candidate, desire just to express one's will in the state ruling processes, solidarity to other members of one's social environment, pleasure to socialize with other community members during the voting process and going to the pools just for entertaining). In order to separate these two highly related motivation groups, the cleavage is incorporated and the concrete conditions which have to be fulfilled during the survey data's analysis in order to claim the prime existence of one or another motivation are defined. As expected, the existence of the expressive turnout motivations among Lithuanian voters is confirmed. Among them the most common, most popular motivations are going to the pools because of the desire to express the loyalty and support for the preferred political party or candidate (even if it is not expected that they can win), to express one's will in the state governing process, and going to the pools just because of the sense of duty. The more popular instrumental motivation, as it is found, is going to vote because of the desire to elect ones representative, but the most often both of the instrumental motivations are reported. Making the comparison, with some precaution one could say that the expressive motivations of turnout are even more often than the instrumental among Lithuanian voters.

Politics of the EU frequently use referendums to legitimise fundamental decisions. Naturally, attention is usually focused on those that end in a NO vote. Historically, governments have always had ways to circumvent such decisions by calling another referendum on a slightly reworded question, e.g. the Maastricht Treaty in Denmark or the Treaty of Nice and the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland. The qualitative comparative analysis showed that these pairs of referendums are distinct and comparable to study the result inversion phenomenon. Hence, the research aim was widened: employing the theoretical approaches of rational choice and new institutionalism, to explore the behaviour of actors participating in campaigns of European pairs of referendums within a changing structural environment. Paired referendums pose new challenges to actors of the institutional level (governments, parties and stakeholder groups). It was observed that governments tend to manipulate formal rules of referendums and aim to influence the process of second referendums. Next to the rational choice aided by the new institutionalism, the change in positions of YES and NO camps was registered by reconstructing constantly changing political discourses for each specific moment. This revealed that during second referendums and despite the participation of same actors, the voting is no longer on the same issue but on a differently presented and perceived treaty, i.e. the structural environment is essentially changed.

Politics of the EU frequently use referendums to legitimise fundamental decisions. Naturally, attention is usually focused on those that end in a NO vote. Historically, governments have always had ways to circumvent such decisions by calling another referendum on a slightly reworded question, e.g. the Maastricht Treaty in Denmark or the Treaty of Nice and the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland. The qualitative comparative analysis showed that these pairs of referendums are distinct and comparable to study the result inversion phenomenon. Hence, the research aim was widened: employing the theoretical approaches of rational choice and new institutionalism, to explore the behaviour of actors participating in campaigns of European pairs of referendums within a changing structural environment. Paired referendums pose new challenges to actors of the institutional level (governments, parties and stakeholder groups). It was observed that governments tend to manipulate formal rules of referendums and aim to influence the process of second referendums. Next to the rational choice aided by the new institutionalism, the change in positions of YES and NO camps was registered by reconstructing constantly changing political discourses for each specific moment. This revealed that during second referendums and despite the participation of same actors, the voting is no longer on the same issue but on a differently presented and perceived treaty, i.e. the structural environment is essentially changed.

Politics of the EU frequently use referendums to legitimise fundamental decisions. Naturally, attention is usually focused on those that end in a NO vote. Historically, governments have always had ways to circumvent such decisions by calling another referendum on a slightly reworded question, e.g. the Maastricht Treaty in Denmark or the Treaty of Nice and the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland. The qualitative comparative analysis showed that these pairs of referendums are distinct and comparable to study the result inversion phenomenon. Hence, the research aim was widened: employing the theoretical approaches of rational choice and new institutionalism, to explore the behaviour of actors participating in campaigns of European pairs of referendums within a changing structural environment. Paired referendums pose new challenges to actors of the institutional level (governments, parties and stakeholder groups). It was observed that governments tend to manipulate formal rules of referendums and aim to influence the process of second referendums. Next to the rational choice aided by the new institutionalism, the change in positions of YES and NO camps was registered by reconstructing constantly changing political discourses for each specific moment. This revealed that during second referendums and despite the participation of same actors, the voting is no longer on the same issue but on a differently presented and perceived treaty, i.e. the structural environment is essentially changed.

Politics of the EU frequently use referendums to legitimise fundamental decisions. Naturally, attention is usually focused on those that end in a NO vote. Historically, governments have always had ways to circumvent such decisions by calling another referendum on a slightly reworded question, e.g. the Maastricht Treaty in Denmark or the Treaty of Nice and the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland. The qualitative comparative analysis showed that these pairs of referendums are distinct and comparable to study the result inversion phenomenon. Hence, the research aim was widened: employing the theoretical approaches of rational choice and new institutionalism, to explore the behaviour of actors participating in campaigns of European pairs of referendums within a changing structural environment. Paired referendums pose new challenges to actors of the institutional level (governments, parties and stakeholder groups). It was observed that governments tend to manipulate formal rules of referendums and aim to influence the process of second referendums. Next to the rational choice aided by the new institutionalism, the change in positions of YES and NO camps was registered by reconstructing constantly changing political discourses for each specific moment. This revealed that during second referendums and despite the participation of same actors, the voting is no longer on the same issue but on a differently presented and perceived treaty, i.e. the structural environment is essentially changed.

Politics of the EU frequently use referendums to legitimise fundamental decisions. Naturally, attention is usually focused on those that end in a NO vote. Historically, governments have always had ways to circumvent such decisions by calling another referendum on a slightly reworded question, e.g. the Maastricht Treaty in Denmark or the Treaty of Nice and the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland. The qualitative comparative analysis showed that these pairs of referendums are distinct and comparable to study the result inversion phenomenon. Hence, the research aim was widened: employing the theoretical approaches of rational choice and new institutionalism, to explore the behaviour of actors participating in campaigns of European pairs of referendums within a changing structural environment. Paired referendums pose new challenges to actors of the institutional level (governments, parties and stakeholder groups). It was observed that governments tend to manipulate formal rules of referendums and aim to influence the process of second referendums. Next to the rational choice aided by the new institutionalism, the change in positions of YES and NO camps was registered by reconstructing constantly changing political discourses for each specific moment. This revealed that during second referendums and despite the participation of same actors, the voting is no longer on the same issue but on a differently presented and perceived treaty, i.e. the structural environment is essentially changed.

Politics of the EU frequently use referendums to legitimise fundamental decisions. Naturally, attention is usually focused on those that end in a NO vote. Historically, governments have always had ways to circumvent such decisions by calling another referendum on a slightly reworded question, e.g. the Maastricht Treaty in Denmark or the Treaty of Nice and the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland. The qualitative comparative analysis showed that these pairs of referendums are distinct and comparable to study the result inversion phenomenon. Hence, the research aim was widened: employing the theoretical approaches of rational choice and new institutionalism, to explore the behaviour of actors participating in campaigns of European pairs of referendums within a changing structural environment. Paired referendums pose new challenges to actors of the institutional level (governments, parties and stakeholder groups). It was observed that governments tend to manipulate formal rules of referendums and aim to influence the process of second referendums. Next to the rational choice aided by the new institutionalism, the change in positions of YES and NO camps was registered by reconstructing constantly changing political discourses for each specific moment. This revealed that during second referendums and despite the participation of same actors, the voting is no longer on the same issue but on a differently presented and perceived treaty, i.e. the structural environment is essentially changed.

Nowadays politics becomes more and more related to communication. Fast growth of information technologies determines simultaneous development of communication strategies and technologies. Contemporary voters' behavior theories say that voters put no or minimal effort to searching for political information. When making important political decisions people refer to the information that they can easily get or to the information which they receive as a side product of their other activities. Other obvious tendency of voters' behavior shows that the leader and the image of the leader of political party becomes much more important than the ideology and political party itself. Not ideological but emotional factors are the basis for the political decisions. These tendencies make the image of politician and its construction an actual topic and worthy of deeper analysis. The object of this work is the media influences on the image of leaders in the parliamentary election of 2008. The aim of this thesis is to determine the media influence on the image of the leaders and the results of the parliamentary elections of 2008. The objectives of this work are: to define the term of the image and the composite parts of it, to define the common attributes of the political leaders, to structure the process of image making and to propose the scheme of the image construction process, to analyze popular images of politicians and political communications tendencies, to describe image communication technologies and to determine the influences on the image of leaders in the parliamentary election of 2008 by implementing two: quantitative and qualitative empirical researches – the content analysis and the expert interview. The hypotheses of the study are: 1. The images of political leaders of the Lithuanian Liberal and Centre Union and Liberlals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania reflected in the media had the major influence on the results of the parliamentary election of 2008. 2. Positive information makes positive influence and negative information makes negative influence on the leader's image and the results of parliamentary elections. The working methods in a theoretical part of this work are: analysis, systematization and classification of the secondary data, comparative, analogy, logical methods, induction. The methods in a practical part of this work are: content analysis and expert interview. The results of the expert interview proved out the main hypothesis of the work. Images of the political leaders of the Lithuanian Liberal and Centre Union and Liberlals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania political parties had the major role on the results of the parliamentary election of 2008. The images of the leaders in the media and the use of the media determined the decision of the voters and the results of the parliamentary election. Even if the quantitative research showed the correlation between the negative information in the media and worse election results, the second hypothesis proved out only partially. The results of the qualitative research showed that both – positive and negative information raise people awareness about the leader and makes positive changes. If the leader is not seen in the media he is invisible to people. But for the negative information to make a negative impact and to turn the of the voter attitude to the worse, the information about the leader must be formatted very and spread very intensively. Secondly the influence of the negative information depends on the reliability of channel and thirdly it depends on the loyalty to the party. If the channel that spreads negative information is unreliable, the voter will not believe it and this negative information can even lead to opposite effect – the voter will support the leader even more. If the voter is very loyal to the certain political party or leader it will be very difficult to change his opinion and make him change his choice.

Nowadays politics becomes more and more related to communication. Fast growth of information technologies determines simultaneous development of communication strategies and technologies. Contemporary voters' behavior theories say that voters put no or minimal effort to searching for political information. When making important political decisions people refer to the information that they can easily get or to the information which they receive as a side product of their other activities. Other obvious tendency of voters' behavior shows that the leader and the image of the leader of political party becomes much more important than the ideology and political party itself. Not ideological but emotional factors are the basis for the political decisions. These tendencies make the image of politician and its construction an actual topic and worthy of deeper analysis. The object of this work is the media influences on the image of leaders in the parliamentary election of 2008. The aim of this thesis is to determine the media influence on the image of the leaders and the results of the parliamentary elections of 2008. The objectives of this work are: to define the term of the image and the composite parts of it, to define the common attributes of the political leaders, to structure the process of image making and to propose the scheme of the image construction process, to analyze popular images of politicians and political communications tendencies, to describe image communication technologies and to determine the influences on the image of leaders in the parliamentary election of 2008 by implementing two: quantitative and qualitative empirical researches – the content analysis and the expert interview. The hypotheses of the study are: 1. The images of political leaders of the Lithuanian Liberal and Centre Union and Liberlals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania reflected in the media had the major influence on the results of the parliamentary election of 2008. 2. Positive information makes positive influence and negative information makes negative influence on the leader's image and the results of parliamentary elections. The working methods in a theoretical part of this work are: analysis, systematization and classification of the secondary data, comparative, analogy, logical methods, induction. The methods in a practical part of this work are: content analysis and expert interview. The results of the expert interview proved out the main hypothesis of the work. Images of the political leaders of the Lithuanian Liberal and Centre Union and Liberlals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania political parties had the major role on the results of the parliamentary election of 2008. The images of the leaders in the media and the use of the media determined the decision of the voters and the results of the parliamentary election. Even if the quantitative research showed the correlation between the negative information in the media and worse election results, the second hypothesis proved out only partially. The results of the qualitative research showed that both – positive and negative information raise people awareness about the leader and makes positive changes. If the leader is not seen in the media he is invisible to people. But for the negative information to make a negative impact and to turn the of the voter attitude to the worse, the information about the leader must be formatted very and spread very intensively. Secondly the influence of the negative information depends on the reliability of channel and thirdly it depends on the loyalty to the party. If the channel that spreads negative information is unreliable, the voter will not believe it and this negative information can even lead to opposite effect – the voter will support the leader even more. If the voter is very loyal to the certain political party or leader it will be very difficult to change his opinion and make him change his choice.

Nowadays politics becomes more and more related to communication. Fast growth of information technologies determines simultaneous development of communication strategies and technologies. Contemporary voters' behavior theories say that voters put no or minimal effort to searching for political information. When making important political decisions people refer to the information that they can easily get or to the information which they receive as a side product of their other activities. Other obvious tendency of voters' behavior shows that the leader and the image of the leader of political party becomes much more important than the ideology and political party itself. Not ideological but emotional factors are the basis for the political decisions. These tendencies make the image of politician and its construction an actual topic and worthy of deeper analysis. The object of this work is the media influences on the image of leaders in the parliamentary election of 2008. The aim of this thesis is to determine the media influence on the image of the leaders and the results of the parliamentary elections of 2008. The objectives of this work are: to define the term of the image and the composite parts of it, to define the common attributes of the political leaders, to structure the process of image making and to propose the scheme of the image construction process, to analyze popular images of politicians and political communications tendencies, to describe image communication technologies and to determine the influences on the image of leaders in the parliamentary election of 2008 by implementing two: quantitative and qualitative empirical researches – the content analysis and the expert interview. The hypotheses of the study are: 1. The images of political leaders of the Lithuanian Liberal and Centre Union and Liberlals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania reflected in the media had the major influence on the results of the parliamentary election of 2008. 2. Positive information makes positive influence and negative information makes negative influence on the leader's image and the results of parliamentary elections. The working methods in a theoretical part of this work are: analysis, systematization and classification of the secondary data, comparative, analogy, logical methods, induction. The methods in a practical part of this work are: content analysis and expert interview. The results of the expert interview proved out the main hypothesis of the work. Images of the political leaders of the Lithuanian Liberal and Centre Union and Liberlals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania political parties had the major role on the results of the parliamentary election of 2008. The images of the leaders in the media and the use of the media determined the decision of the voters and the results of the parliamentary election. Even if the quantitative research showed the correlation between the negative information in the media and worse election results, the second hypothesis proved out only partially. The results of the qualitative research showed that both – positive and negative information raise people awareness about the leader and makes positive changes. If the leader is not seen in the media he is invisible to people. But for the negative information to make a negative impact and to turn the of the voter attitude to the worse, the information about the leader must be formatted very and spread very intensively. Secondly the influence of the negative information depends on the reliability of channel and thirdly it depends on the loyalty to the party. If the channel that spreads negative information is unreliable, the voter will not believe it and this negative information can even lead to opposite effect – the voter will support the leader even more. If the voter is very loyal to the certain political party or leader it will be very difficult to change his opinion and make him change his choice.

Nowadays politics becomes more and more related to communication. Fast growth of information technologies determines simultaneous development of communication strategies and technologies. Contemporary voters' behavior theories say that voters put no or minimal effort to searching for political information. When making important political decisions people refer to the information that they can easily get or to the information which they receive as a side product of their other activities. Other obvious tendency of voters' behavior shows that the leader and the image of the leader of political party becomes much more important than the ideology and political party itself. Not ideological but emotional factors are the basis for the political decisions. These tendencies make the image of politician and its construction an actual topic and worthy of deeper analysis. The object of this work is the media influences on the image of leaders in the parliamentary election of 2008. The aim of this thesis is to determine the media influence on the image of the leaders and the results of the parliamentary elections of 2008. The objectives of this work are: to define the term of the image and the composite parts of it, to define the common attributes of the political leaders, to structure the process of image making and to propose the scheme of the image construction process, to analyze popular images of politicians and political communications tendencies, to describe image communication technologies and to determine the influences on the image of leaders in the parliamentary election of 2008 by implementing two: quantitative and qualitative empirical researches – the content analysis and the expert interview. The hypotheses of the study are: 1. The images of political leaders of the Lithuanian Liberal and Centre Union and Liberlals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania reflected in the media had the major influence on the results of the parliamentary election of 2008. 2. Positive information makes positive influence and negative information makes negative influence on the leader's image and the results of parliamentary elections. The working methods in a theoretical part of this work are: analysis, systematization and classification of the secondary data, comparative, analogy, logical methods, induction. The methods in a practical part of this work are: content analysis and expert interview. The results of the expert interview proved out the main hypothesis of the work. Images of the political leaders of the Lithuanian Liberal and Centre Union and Liberlals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania political parties had the major role on the results of the parliamentary election of 2008. The images of the leaders in the media and the use of the media determined the decision of the voters and the results of the parliamentary election. Even if the quantitative research showed the correlation between the negative information in the media and worse election results, the second hypothesis proved out only partially. The results of the qualitative research showed that both – positive and negative information raise people awareness about the leader and makes positive changes. If the leader is not seen in the media he is invisible to people. But for the negative information to make a negative impact and to turn the of the voter attitude to the worse, the information about the leader must be formatted very and spread very intensively. Secondly the influence of the negative information depends on the reliability of channel and thirdly it depends on the loyalty to the party. If the channel that spreads negative information is unreliable, the voter will not believe it and this negative information can even lead to opposite effect – the voter will support the leader even more. If the voter is very loyal to the certain political party or leader it will be very difficult to change his opinion and make him change his choice.

Different shortcomings have been attributed to both legislators (the people & the parliament) in all countries & at all times. The key shortcoming of the people as a legislator is its unability to duly solve state-level issues: the totality of citizens can easily be misled, they lack knowledge or competence on specific issues, their decisions are based on stereotypes etc. Another limitation of people is related to the possibility that anonymity of its decisions can provoke cruelty & intolerance. Despite logical validity of the above-mentioned shortcomings their practical correctness is not proven. Falseness is also not proven as the only existing example of a frequent people's participation in legislation (Switzerland) among other things proving the falseness of the above-mentioned reproaches could hardly serve as a basis for generalization. To the disadvantage of people as a legislator, a procedural argument is presented: during a referendum it is not possible to adopt a maximum best & balanced law as in every case there is a choice "either... or." There is a vote en bloc & no editorial (even most rational) amendments are possible. Besides, the legislation that involves a referendum is related to huge costs. The people's participation in legislation is beneficial because it ensures a higher legitimacy of the decisions & brings people closer to the ruling elite (thus the gap between what citizens expect from the administration & what they receive from the administration is minimized), moreover, this guarantees every citizen's right to participate in tackling his/her affairs. There is one case where the laws adopted by the people have all the strengths of the laws adopted by the parliament & the people, & avoid almost all the failings. These are ratification referenda where the parliament-approved draft laws are adopted (or rejected). The people are only a nominal legislator in Lithuania. The recent practice proves that currently the requirements for holding a referendum make it impossible to pass laws in referenda. This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that the requirements for initiating a referendum are practically impossible to meet: so far nobody has managed to collect 300.000 signatures required to initiate a referendum, ie., 12 percent of the citizens of the Republic of Lithuania who have the right to vote. Consequently, the Seimas is de facto the only legislator in Lithuania. The Parliament as a lawmaker also has some weaknesses. First parliament members, unlike the people, are more prone to bribing or may be subject to some other personal impact. On the other hand, in contemporary electoral system, the parliamentarians who seek to stay in office pander both certain social or territorial groups of the electorate by adopting laws beneficial to them. The people as the whole is not the only popular actor in the legislative process. Individual citizens & their groups have certain powers as well. Yet they are not legislators as such, but rather merely participants of the legislative process. As compared to foreign practice, in Lithuania the conditions & procedure exercising citizens' legislative initiative (50.000 signatures required) are subject to relatively liberal regulation. Unlike in many countries of Europe, there are no direct restrictions on exercising this initiative. There are two indirect restrictions: 1) a draft law on the state budget of the Republic of Lithuania can only be prepared & submitted to the Seimas by the Government, 2) draft laws on ratification & denouncing international treaties are submitted by the President. In practice, however, citizens' legislative initiatives are related to politicians' rather than citizens' initiatives. Citizens' legislative initiative most often is used not to promote the idea of lawmaking but to use citizens' signatures for exerting political pressure on the Seimas ruling majority by opposition & communicating a certain message to the electorate. Out of seven initiatives, one brought some results. Exercising the right of petition at the Seimas is in fact an indirect legislative initiative. It diminishes the significance of the Constitutional right of 50.000 citizens' initiative. This right does not make any practical influence: so far only two laws have been passed on the basis of the problems addressed in petitions. Adapted from the source document.

Lithuania's referendum on the accession into the European Union was part of the so-called "domino strategy" of the fourth wave of EU enlargement, which aimed to influence the mindset of the inhabitants of the less euro-enthusiastic member states by placing the pressure of the anticipated high positive result from the more enthusiastic member states (Lithuania among them) on them. Typical trend of elites' manipulations can be observed in Lithuania, i.e. changing of the legal basis on the referendum prior to the EU accession referendum in order to facilitate positive outcome. These facilitating rules had been introduced step by step, bringing any discussions on these matters in a parliament during election campaigns of 2000 & 2002 to an end in order to escape escalation of the pro versus the anti-European cleavages within political system. Thus, a double hurdle (both turn-out & voting YES of 50 per cent of all eligible voters) existing since 1989 in referendum legislation was lowered introducing triple hurdle (turnout of 50 per cent & voting YES one third of all eligible voters but more than 50 per cent of participants) in 2002. Then, in 2003 it was facilitated once again introducing new double hurdle (turn-out 50 per cent of all eligible voters & voting YES by 50 per cent of participants). Further attempts to facilitate positive result were limited by two factors: first, a specific factor, an almost parallel initiative of referendum on the constitutional amendments (so-called "Uspaskikh referendum"), is to be taken into consideration. In addition, a general requirement that the citizens themselves decide on the issue of Lithuania's EU integration in a decisive & binding manner, i.e. a referendum, typical for other CEE countries as well as, was also important here. Finally, other settings laying ground for a positive result, though facilitated twice, were further reinforced by a two-day voting procedure. Together with an unexpected apathy of Hungarian voters in their referendum, these risky rules became a reason for dramatization & anxiety expecting proclaiming referendum as invalid due to insufficient voter turnout. An official information campaign of the Government on the EU accession started in 2000. Gradually it turned into a one-sided agitation campaign, let alone before the referendum date. Positive involvement of the institutions possessing high public confidence such as te mass media & Catholic Church, a well-established consensus of the major political parties on the EU accession, weak organization of the euro-skeptical movement all led to an absence of any substantial political competition. Finally, the advertising as such started dominating the campaign. Features of propaganda, sometimes coming very close to a violation of laws banning advertising during the voting days, could be observed here too. Different points of view should be endorsed in order to interpret the high positive result of the referendum in a sufficient manner. As regards the history of Lithuania's political system, it was the fourth successful referendum since the 90s. What was typical for all of them was that the citizens & the elites held a common position on the issue. Seen within the context of the latest internal political developments in Lithuania, it could be nevertheless equated to an exception first of all in view of electorate's positive motivation, less apathy & the lack of tangible protest features. Referendum proceeding & its results -- maximal active support for the YES statement among all countries of fourth wave of EU enlargement -- give a fresh & useful data for testing "elite-centric," "rational choice," "ideological-cultural" theories of euro-integration. 6 Lenteles. Adapted from the source document.