In comparative studies of transitional justice in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe, Lithuania is ranked among the countries which have taken the strictest lustration measures. In contrast, a very negative perception of the issue dominates the Lithuanian public discourse. Lustration is often described as impotent or failed in the media. Despite its high political importance, there has been no systemic analysis evaluating the results of Lithuania's lustration policy (LLP). This article aims at analyzing the effectiveness of LLP. The main object of this article is the LLP which consists of three sets of laws: 1998 laws aimed at restricting the former KGB employees, 1999 law aimed at KGB's secret collaborators, and 2010 law allowing publishing remaining KGB documents. This article corresponds with the last wave of transitional justice studies, in which the results and/or impact of transitional justice measures is evaluated. The findings of this article suggest a rather positive evaluation of LLP, further contradicting the opinion dominant in the local media. This could encourage future studies to explore the reasons of this inconsistency. Adapted from the source document.
Straipsnyje siekiama isanalizuoti Lenkijos parlamentiniu politiniu partiju programas, kuriose isskiriamas uzsienio politikos vektorius regioninio bendradarbiavimo kontekste. Pagrindinis demesys analizeje skiriamas politinems partijoms ir jas vienijanciai ideologijai analizuoti, apibreziant siu subjektu vaidmeni bendrame Lenkijos uzsienio politikos formavimo procese. Tekste pateikiamos prioritetines uzsienio politikos sritys, kurias isskiria parlamentines Lenkijos partijos. Analize atliekama nagrinejant 2011 metais suformuluotas parlamentiniu politiniu partiju - Pilieciu platformos, Teises ir teisingumo, Demokratines kaires aljanso, Lenkijos valstieciu sajungos - programas. Straipsnyje nera analizuojamas Palikotos judejimo (lenk. Ruch Palikota, RP) atvejis, nes sios partijos programoje nera isskiriamas uzsienio politikos vektorius. Tekste siekiama isanalizuoti pagrindinius Lenkijos uzsienio politikos prioritetus, ju vieta formuojant ir vykdant politika, ir daugiausia demesio skiriama siu prioritetu apraiskoms parlamentiniu politiniu partiju programose. Analizuojant Lenkijos regioninio ir strateginio bendradarbiavimo sritis, pateikiamas partiju programose isskiriamas bendradarbiavimas Europos Sajungos regione, transatlantiniai rysiai su JAV ir NATO bei santykiai su gretimomis valstybemis. Straipsnyje siekiama ivertinti, ar politiniu partiju programose iskelti uzsienio politikos vektoriai atspindi oficialia valstybes uzsienio politikos koncepcija This article analyses programs of Poland Parliamentary political parties, which exclude vectors of foreign politics in the context of regional collaboration. The most important concept in this article is the analysis of political parties and their ideologies which show their importance in forming foreign politics in Poland. Priority areas of foreign politics in Poland are presented in the text. Analysis was conducted using analysing programs (2011) of Parliamentary parties such as Civic Platform, Law and Justice, Democratic Left Alliance and Polish People Party. The case of Palikot's movement is absent in the article due to the fact that the vector of foreign politics is not excluded in its program. The main priorities of Poland's foreign politics, its position in forming and performing the politics are analysed in the text. The focus of it is on how these priorities are presented in the programs of Parliamentary parties. Adapted from the source document.
The purpose of this article is to research the role imagination plays in making of justice judgments. It is argued that by taking into account the activities, enabled by imagination, we are in a better position to explain the factors influencing judgments of distributive justice. The empirical research of distributive justice has shown that context is important in deciding which norm of distribution has to be applied. Still, to explain what it means to understand the context of distribution we need to study imagination. Imagination is an innate mental capacity of making the images of absent, not directly perceived images. Three activities enabled by imagination are discussed in connection with the justice judgments, namely, moral imagination, empathy & compassion. Moral imagination is understood as a capacity to perceive the situation in terms of what is morally relevant & irrelevant. It relies on the symbolic resources such as moral vocabulary & metaphor, among others. Analysis of which particular resources are employed in perceiving particular situation may shed a light on the process of justice judgment. Another activity, discussed in this paper, is empathy. Empathy is the capacity to imagine the feelings & emotions of the other, by imagining self in the situation of the other. The role of empathy is significant, as it is the main activity by which people can know at all of what the perspectives of others are, & thereby to encompass these in their own understanding of the context. The strength of empathy depends upon the similarity & blame attribution of the person with whom we empathize. These, in turn, are encoded in the signs & narratives we use to describe who the other is. Finally, some theorists argue that in order to understand judgments of distributive justice we need to take into account the play of compassion. Compassion is a disposition to seek well-being for those who suffer. Still, compassion is an ambiguous disposition, as it is very close to the aversion. For that reason, compassion, far from motivating as to take care of those in the worst condition, makes us to turn away from them. Adapted from the source document.
John Rawls's famous "A Theory of Justice" firmly established itself as a classical work in the field of political philosophy. There is a huge mass of critical literature on it dealing with various details & aspects. Yet it seems nobody noticed some fatal internal inconsistency at the very basis of the project. That is, the fact that Rawlsian aim to make a theory of justice more geometrico diverges from his explicit belief in the unconditional value of justice & its conceptual independence of rationality. This belief is an essential part of the "Theory" no less than the attempts to ground it on reason. But to ground justice on reason means exactly to destroy its conceptual autonomy & unconditionality. That is the problem the article concentrates on. It shows that, firstly, Rawls makes not clear enough which ideal -- this of justice or that of rationality -- he takes as self-grounding & of the ultimate importance when compared with each other. On the one hand, the willingness to use the model of the original position stems from purely moral, that is, unreducible to utility maximizing calculations, state of consciousness, without which the persons cannot be persuaded to take part in the mental experiment & to perceive it as just. On the other hand, Rawls declares the need to ground the principles of justice & to prove that unjust behavior is also irrational, which means he questions the very belief in the binding power of Kantian morality together with his own quest for justice (If justice is nothing other than rationality, so why should we worry about it? Let's speak instead about rationality & utility alone). Secondly, we demonstrate that although a famous veil of ignorance needs because the persons under it are homini economici, that is, rational egoists without any moral sentiments, yet this veil is possible & useful only if the homini are supplied with a sense of justice, which means that the initial definition of the persons is destroyed. Moreover, in this case the veil is superfluous because the supposed sense of justice takes on the function of it. Thirdly, a contradiction in terms between two fundamental presuppositions of Rawls's theory -- Cartesian universal reason of solitary thinker on the one hand & contractarian conception of justice on the other -- is exposed: what becomes of the idea that justice is the result of a rational agreement, if each person finds the principles of justice individually & needs no communication? Fourthly, communitarian critique of Rawlsian claim to universality & impartiality is briefly presented & discussed in order to show that to be rational is not the same as to be neutral, fair & impartial. Moreover, no matter what we think about the possibility to be fair, at least the state of being both rational & fair (or just in Rawlsian sense) is unattainable. Adapted from the source document.
The goal of paper is to put into focus and explain essential features of the political development in Lithuania during second post-communist decade by means of its comparison with the analogous processes in other Baltic States (Latvia and Estonia) and in those Central European countries with political systems which resemble most closely Lithuanian case (Poland and Hungary). In all these countries, second post-communist decade witnessed the rise of the new successful populist parties. The author argues that this populist rise is the proper context for the understanding of Rolandas Paksas' impeachment in Lithuania in 2003-2004. His Order and Justice party has to be classified together with the brothers Kaczynski's Law and Justice party and its even more radical allies in Poland, Viktor Orban's Fidesz and Gabor Vona's Jobbik in Hungary, Juhan Part's Res Publica in Estonia and Einars Repse's New Era in Latvia. While the rise of right-wing populism did not change the political system in the former bureaucratic authoritarian countries Estonia and Latvia, in Hungary and Poland the outcome was the breakup of the implicit ex-communist and anti-communist elite pact which was the foundation of the political stability in these former countries of national communism. Lithuania is unique in that the ex-communist and anti- communist elite pact was not abolished, but preserved and consolidated due to the collaboration of all, by this time, "established" and Left-of-centre populist parties during the impeachment proceedings. Adapted from the source document.
By employing formerly in Lithuanian political science unexploited concept of cognitive schema, the formation of the people's attitudes towards political issues is explained in this article. The first results of the empirical research on the latent structures, forming the Lithuanian residents' thinking on political issues, are presented. Semi structured interviews on two political issues introducing the progressive taxes and abolition of the abortion -- were analyzed and eight schemas, forming the informants' attitudes on these issues, were found. In this article the main components, internal structures and interrelationships among these schemas are presented and the broader implications on the knowledge about Lithuanians political thinking is discussed. Adapted from the source document.
This article examines the provisions of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Compensation of Damage Resulting from the USSR Occupation (hereinafter -- the Law), which was adopted on 13 June 2000, in the light of customary rules of international law on state responsibility, as codified in the 2001 the UN International Law Commission's Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (hereinafter -- the ILC Draft Articles). The main aim of the article is to deal with the international legal grounds of the responsibility of the Russian Federation for the Soviet occupation of the Republic of Lithuania and, against this background, to identify the role of the Law. The ground of Russia's responsibility is an internationally wrongful act committed as the aggression against the Republic of Lithuania, which was started by the 15 June 1940 incursion by the Soviet armed forces & subsequently continued in the form of the illegal occupation of Lithuania until the restoration of Lithuania's independence on 11 March 1990, however, the illegal presence of the foreign forces on Lithuania's soil ended only in 1993. The fact of the 1940 Soviet aggression & illegal occupation of the Baltic States has been widely recognized by the international community, it was even acknowledged by the USSR & Russia in 1989-1991. Therefore there is no doubt that under international law from 1940-1990 the Republic of Lithuania had been an occupied State. That is why the illegal occupation with its consequences, as the breach of an international obligation not to resort to aggression having a continuing character, constitutes an objective element of an internationally wrongful act being the ground for Russia's responsibility. That also explains why the title of the Law refers to the occupation. Meanwhile the specific feature of subjective element is addressed in the preamble of the Law. That is the continuity of the Russian State & the corresponding identity of its international legal personality with the Soviet Union, which was claimed by Russia & generally recognized by the international community. Therefore under international law the Russian Federation is the State continuing the rights & obligations of the former USSR (ie., it is the same international legal person). Consequently, internationally wrongful acts of the latter, including the Soviet occupation of Lithuania & the other two Baltic States, should be attributable to the Russian Federation. Apart from the ground for Russia's responsibility, the issue of reparation is addressed in the article. In accordance with international law (the ILC Draft Article), the principle of full reparation should be applied to realize responsibility for an internationally wrongful act. The full reparation for the injury can be provided in the form of restitution, compensation & satisfaction, while any financially assessable damage should be covered by compensation when restitution is not practically possible. Responsibility for the Soviet occupation is the latter case. Therefore in this sense the Law concretizes the claim of Lithuania as it lays down the obligations of the Government of Lithuania to calculate the damage & seek its compensation from Russia. In conformity with the principle of full reparation, the provisions of the Law require to calculate the damage for all period of the Soviet occupation as well as to cover all types of financially assessable damage. The third main issue addressed in this article is admissibility of a claim for reparation, ie., the procedural requirements to be observed by the injured State invoking an international responsibility of other State. The main requirement, as follows from Art. 43 of the ILC Draft Articles, is that the injured State should give a timely & proper notice of its claim to the State responsible for an internationally wrongful act; the claim is admissible when it is waived by the injured State or it can be inadmissible when it is not maintained. However, a mere lapse of time without a claim is being resolved, including delay in its prosecution due to refusal of the respondent State, cannot result in loss of the right of the injured State to invoke responsibility. In this regard the Law is a unilateral act of the State of Lithuania which formulates & concretizes the claim for Russia's responsibility. The form of this act was determined by Lithuanian national rather than international law as the former requires that any compulsory rules or instructions for the Government can be laid down by the Seimas (the Parliament) only in the form of (statutory) law. As it is clear from the preamble of the Law, in continuing & consolidating the previous Lithuanian acts invoking Russia's responsibility the Law demonstrates that the claim for responsibility has been raised without any unreasonable delay a long time ago (the first time Lithuania declared about its claim for reparation in 1991) & Russia is aware of that claim from the very beginning. In such a manner the Law also proves a consistent & unchanging position of Lithuania with regard to Russia's responsibility. Therefore, the Law evidences that the claim of Lithuania remains admissible although still being unresolved & notwithstanding that Russia is rejecting it. Under international law the injured State has the right to waive its claim for responsibility of another State. National law may, however, restrict that right in setting up appropriate duties for the authorities of the injured State. In this regard it follows from the preamble of the Law that under Lithuanian constitutional law no State organ or official can declare a waiver of the claim for Russia's responsibility because the Law is based on & aims at implementation of the corresponding decision by the 14 June 1992 national referendum that demanded to seek reparation for the Soviet occupation. Therefore, the waiver can be declared only by other referendum as well as without a referendum the Seimas cannot abolish the provisions of the Law requiring to seek a compensation (such kind of action could amount to the waiver in the sense of Art. 45(a) of the ILC Draft Articles). To keep the claim for responsibility of another State admissible & valid, when it is being unresolved a long time, the injured State should do everything it can reasonably do to maintain the claim. Otherwise it can be questioned, whether the right to invoke responsibility is lost due to conduct of the injured State in the sense of Art. 45(b) of the ILC Draft Articles. Therefore, to avoid similar doubts the Law obliged the Government to seek constantly the compensation for the damage caused by the Soviet occupation. Since Russia used to reject Lithuania's initiatives to conduct negotiations on the matter & any other way of settlement is not available without Russia's consent, it can be stated that as yet, in particular due to the Law, the conduct of Lithuania has not raised any serious doubts with regard to validity of its claim for compensation. Obviously such doubts would be serious if any kind of moratorium on the claim had been announced. To sum it up, it can be concluded that the Law is based on & is consistent with the rules of international law. It also implements the international legal requirements for the proper declaration & maintenance of the claim for reparation. Therefore both under international law & under Lithuanian constitutional law the Law has been necessary to consolidate & consistently maintain the claim to Russia for the compensation of the damages caused by the Soviet occupation. Lastly, it should be noted that a proper settlement of the problem of Russia's responsibility for the Soviet occupation of Lithuania is not a question of self-interest for Lithuania & it should pursue the claim for compensation not only due to the decision by the 14 June 1992 referendum. Not accidentally Art. 1 of the ILC Draft Articles refers that "every internationally wrongful act of a State entails the international responsibility of that State." It is also not accidentally that the preamble of the 1991 Treaty between Lithuania & Russia states that mutual confidence between the people of both Parties is hard to achieve without elimination of the consequences of the Soviet annexation of Lithuania. Like for national law, rule of law & justice cannot be established without realization & inevitability of responsibility for grave breaches of international law. Therefore the realization of responsibility for the 1940 aggression against the Baltic States & its consequences would undoubtedly contribute to general prevention of such grave breaches as well as would assure that similar tragic events never happen again in the history of Lithuania. Such kind of prevention should be at the focus of attention of the whole international community rather than only Lithuania & the other two Baltic States, since a prohibition of aggression is a long-standing rule of jus cogens character & obligation erga omnes towards international community. Adapted from the source document.
The article deals with the issues of implementation & application of EU law can be defined as a complex processes aimed to ensure full respect of the requirements of EU legislation. Implementation often concerns various EU & national legal provisions, individual factual circumstances and, no doubt, differences in their interpretation. Consequently, infringements done by the Member States may take number of forms. To disclose present situation, find underpinning reasons & look for possible solutions for the improvement of the implementation of EU law, it is necessary to identify relevant infringements, establish common features & to proceed with evaluation. General analysis of infringement cases when Lithuania is accused, allegedly or correctly, for not fulfillment of its commitments related to the implementation of EU law is provided in the article. Experience of Lithuania is displayed in the context of ten new Member States of the EU and some comparison with the 'old' Member States is also provided occasionally. Analysis of the particular types of the infringements is focused to establish their nature & character as well as possible actions suitable to reduce their number. Adapted from the source document.
If the guerrilla war is interpreted according to the concept of Carl Schmitt, its relation to the political nation becomes apparent. It takes little effort to see in "the defensive-autochthonous defender of home" the modern citizen par excellence -- the one who is ready to take up arms in defense of his fatherland. However this interconnection escaped the attention of C. Schmitt himself. Therefore "The Theory of Partisan" was left independent of the C. Schmitt's concept of the sovereignty ("Sovereign is he who decides on the exception"). The C. Schmitt's concept of the sovereign dictatorship seems to answer the question. Being the sovereign dictators the partisans act as if they were actual sovereigns -- they do not consider themselves bounded by any previous law. On the other hand as the representatives of the political nation they are only empowered to seek the objectives compatible with the general will of that nation. Adapted from the source document.
This article analyses main public management doctrines (traditional administration, NPM and post-NPM), assesses the doctrinal basis of public management reforms in the 2004-2010 period, provides suggestions concerning principles, directions and process of future public management reforms in Lithuania. Despite different political views and terms of various Governments, important decisions of public management reforms were based on the party logic, whose purpose is to strengthen political authority of the government in office. The implementation of the 'bureaucratic' public administration strategy, whose content was informed by the ideas of post-NPM, was initially unsuccessful because of limited political ownership and the legalistic approach. The XV Lithuanian Government undertook wide public management reforms based on the managerial doctrine with prevailing NPM characteristics. A mix of the party logic and the NPM doctrine could be contradictory and risky in Central and Eastern European countries. Also, the NPM has not yielded good results in continental Europe, its solutions do not match Lithuania's problems and there is no solid empirical evidence about its effectiveness in Lithuania. Therefore, its application should be limited and selective during Lithuania's public management reforms. Post-NPM is the best doctrine for future public management reforms, whose implementation in Lithuania should be supported by broader political consensus, better inter-institutional cooperation and a more managerial implementation approach. Adapted from the source document.
In the article, the EU and Russia relations are analyzed as paying specific attention to the conceptual and practical weight provided for the conjunction "and" when EU-Russia relations are interpreted and practically constructed in the West. The answer which is in common use -- these relations are intellectually based and practically shaped according the engagement doctrine -- is known well. However, the common answer does not eliminate the problem why the perspective of the practical application of engagement toward Russia is still under dispute in the West? The article proceeds to revealing the specifics of the Western attitudes in regard to engagement with Russia and their correlation with the cultural-political identities of engagement's participants. The conjunction "and" emphasizing the EU-Russia relations is interpreted in three ways: optimistically, equably and skeptically. The diversity of interpretations is stimulating by the nodus of factors (history, values and pragmatic interests) which is still affects the EU and Russia relations as well as different attitudes toward the perspectives of co-operation in the future. The very important source of the diversity is the difference in disparity of position regarding the geopolitical development of Eurasia. The article ends with the conclusion that the direction of the EU and Russia engagement will be strongly influenced by the reciprocal attempts to define their own cultural-political identities. Adapted from the source document.
Straipsnyje nagrinejamas politiniu partiju ideologijos veiksnio poveikis lankstisaugos strategijos igyvendinimui Lietuvos darbo rinkoje pirmaisiais seseriais salies narystes ES metais (2004-2010 m.). Pirmiausia, remiantis aprasomaja statistika ir antriniu saltiniu informacija, kiekybiskai ivertinama, kiek si europine iniciatyva buvo igyvendinta Lietuvos uzimtumo politikoje, t. y. koks buvo Europos Sajungos poveikio mastas Lietuvos uzimtumo politikai lankstisaugos pastangu ir proceso pakopose. Tuomet aptariamos salygos ir veiksniai, galeje nulemti pokyciu masta ir pati pobudi. Paskui, atsizvelgiant i tai, jog uzimtumo politikos koordinavimas ES yra grindziamas neprivalomojo pobudzio sprendimais, ir remiantis prielaida, kad tokiu atveju valdanciosios politines partijos tampa pagrindinemis veikejomis, galinciomis imtis tam tikru iniciatyvu ir priimti atitinkamus sprendimus, bus nagrinejamas ju ideologijos poveikis vadovaujantis lankstisauga priimamu sprendimu pobudziui. Tam atliekama kokybine ir kiekybine analizuojamu laikotarpiu Seime pateiktu iniciatyvu uzimtumo srityje (ir susijusiu su lankstisaugos aspektais) analize The object of this article is the implementation of the Flexicurity Strategy in the Lithuanian Labour market. The aim of this paper is to analyse the EU impact on Lithuania's national employment policy in the area of flexicurity and the role of political parties' ideology in this process. To achieve the goal, the concept of flexicurity and its evaluation model were introduced. Then, the Europeanization theoretical approach and the main factors influencing the EU impact on national policies were overviewed. Finally, a piece of the input-process-output model was used to quantify the implementation of Flexicurity Strategy in the Lithuanian labour market. Also, an analysis of legislative initiatives in the Parliament was conducted. It helped to evaluate whether the ideology of the ruling parties influenced the content of law initiatives (in the flexicurity area). Adapted from the source document.
The paper advances the deductive typology of the pathways of postcommunist transformation and their comparative qualitative analysis (QCA), using TOSMANA software. The typology is constructed using three politomic(4 values) variables to describe the causal conditions of postcommunist transformation. These variables are orientation of postcommunist transformation, economic mode of the exit from Communism, and political mode of the exit from Communism. Because of the space limits, the multi-value QCA (mvQCA) is performed only for the outcome 'liberal democratic capitalism' after the first decade of postcommunist transformation. Due to this time limit, the regularities derived by mvQCA are qualified as those of 'rapid' transformation. For this analysis, the data set including 29 cases is used. They are instances of the 17 from the 64 pathways how communism can be transformed into liberal democratic capitalism. To assign the values to cases for the variable 'economic mode of the exit from Communism', the thresholds derived from the EBRD annual 'Transition Reports' were used. To assign the values for the variable 'political mode of the exit from Communism', the data and thresholds from the data set Polity IV (Polity IV Individual Country Regime Trends, 1946-2008) were used. Adapted from the source document.
