The article is dedicated to the discussion about the notions of the 'political system' and 'political regime' in the fields of its meanings as autonomous analytical constructions. The main arguments are that the 'political system' describes a stable and normal political process and determinate interrelations between power structures and civil society institutions as a complex sociopolitical unity. On the other hand, concept of 'political regime' stresses dynamic aspects of the government activity as a realization of the basic political functions. Pointing to the fact that a political system explains events and relations in the modern democratic context and a regime -- its peculiarities in the process of decision-making, the authors share attention to specific negative aspects of the separate interpretation and recognition of the various forms in the national politics spheres. All these conditions may sharp influence over the quality of the authority decisions, feedback among political institutions as a civic interests representatives etc. And otherwise, this implies that the political systems and political regimes realize an isomorphic similarity for taking evasive action between them. Adapted from the source document.
This article is focused on the relation between the political institutional conditions (regime properties) and collective violence. Relying on works of Charles Tilly, two most important properties of regimes (political institutional conditions) that could affect the occurrence and intensity of collective violence are discerned: regime (governmental) capacity and democracy level. Empirical-graphical analysis finds no relation between the democracy level and degree/occurrence of collective violence. However, statistically significant relationship between the governmental capacity (measured as polity fragmentation index) and degree of collective violence is found. Moreover, higher levels of collective violence are observed in the low capacity- undemocratic regimes, but the most successful in terms of containment of collective violence are high-capacity undemocratic regimes (not high capacity-democratic, as formulated in the hypothesis). Adapted from the source document.
The paper seeks to explain the differences as to how successfully the three Baltic countries managed the economic crisis between 2008 and the first half of 2010. More specifically, it analyzes investors' confidence, Estonia being the most successful country in this regard, Latvia the least (the only country that applied for aid from the International Monetary Fund), while Lithuania staying in between. The paper aims to take into account the differences (and similarities) between the Baltic countries as well as emphasize the importance of political-institutional factors in explaining investors' confidence. The importance of investors' confidence as is discussed and different ways of measuring it are reviewed. Moreover, the relevance of political-institutional factors in explaining investors' confidence is established from the theoretical point of view. Based on existing literature, a number of explanatory factors are distinguished, namely electoral processes, non-electoral pressures on government, government stability as well as the quality of informal institutions. The paper argues that Latvia was indeed in a significantly worse situation in terms of economic pre-crisis vulnerabilities than Lithuania and Estonia, both of which had certain, albeit different, economic advantages. The main difference between Lithuania and Estonia emerges comparing political-institutional, rather than purely economic, factors: Estonia was better placed in terms of electoral cycles, the extent of non-electoral pressures, and -- most importantly -- better institutions (governance quality, corruption level, trust in political institutions). Both Latvia and Lithuania found themselves in a significantly worse situation regarding political-institutional factors. Adapted from the source document.
Article treats a 2003-2004 political crisis in Lithuania as not confined to the Presidential institution. This is the crisis of an entire political system that had been maturing since long before. Four groups of factors are identified: 1) exhaustion of the intellectual resources of the political process & the lack of regularity, characteristic to the newly emerging political forces; 2) political anomie, which spans all levels of the political system; 3) entropy of the presidential institution, stimulating the redistribution of authority among separate state structures; & 4) populism & radicalism. The first three groups of factors may conventionally be called 'pre-Paksist', whereas the fourth was particularly activated during the Paksas's presidential tenure. The article argues that the impeachment of the President brought to an end anything but the first stage of the political crisis resolution process. That is why the author leaves the results of the Presidential impeachment aside in this research. The second stage commenced along with the early presidential elections. In general one must note that the political crisis in Lithuania is solvable by democratic & legal means. Adapted from the source document.
Theoretical concepts of "structure" & "structural intersection" are analyzed in this article. The use of these concepts in political science & their critical interpretation is presented by analyzing positivist, ideational & post-modernist approaches. Sociological understanding of structure, which encompasses both material & ideational elements is created. Under the suggested definition, structure is seen as comprised of identity, institutions & material base. The interaction of these structural elements forms scientifically useful concept, which can be applied in the analysis of the socio-political processes in post-soviet transformations. Opportunities & limitations of "structural intersection" analysis, which include both international relations & internal policy perspectives are also presented. Adapted from the source document.
Value orientations of Lithuanian civil servants are analyzed in the context of political culture of society. After the short summing-up on Lithuanian political culture research author concentrates on such features of political culture as distrust in authorities, public institutions, state & democracy; negative attitude towards legislation & attempts to drive through using informal rules & networks; inability to envisage difference between private and public. The role model of civil servant prescribed by Lithuanian legislation reflect the striving, meanwhile in reality officials' practiced values correspond with the orientations of consuming society & some negative habits & stereotypes inherited from the soviet times. Adapted from the source document.
Drawing upon the work by C. Buchen & M. Feldmann, the author argues that among postcommunist countries Slovenia approximates most closely the ideal type of liberal market economy, while Estonia comes most closely to its antipode -- liberal market economy in the sense of P. A. Hall & D. Soskice. While Lithuania together with Estonia lean toward liberal type, postcommunist liberal capitalism displays some unique features, their list including underdeveloped financial sector, strong position of foreign capital, "cocktail" quality of many institutions due to their eclectic import. Lack of institutional complementarity between different institutional spheres is considered as driving force behind recent attempts to reform pension & education systems in Lithuania. Adapted from the source document.
The purpose of this article is to discuss the principle of responsible governance as a basic principle, upon which the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania has relied in explication of the peculiarities of constitutional status of Member of Parliament. On the basis of analysis of the decision of the Constitutional Court, made on 1 July 2004, this article seeks to reveal the specifics of argumentation of the decisions of Constitutional Court, as well as their impact on legislation. Institutions of constitutional supervision in two post-communist countries (Hungary & Lithuania) are compared with a focus on the causes & reasons of their activism & the legitimacy of such activism. Adapted from the source document.
It is widely assumed that effective functioning of democratic institutions depends on the political support & civic engagement of the public. Public support for authorities is especially important during the reform period in new democracies. Evidence from different Central & Eastern European countries including Lithuania demonstrates critically low level of political support, e.g. satisfaction with regime performance & trust in political institutions as well as comparatively low level of political engagement. However, systematic & comprehensive account of these trends & their implications for political stability & democratic performance in new democracies is lacking. Here, the results of qualitative research of political attitudes & political behavior in the Lithuanian countryside are presented, drawing on 30 in-depth interviews with ordinary citizens in Alarita & Naujasodis (district of Moletai) in July 2003. The aim of the research is to explore the dominating patterns of political support & political engagement of Lithuanian citizens. The political support was analyzed by using the theoretical framework of David Easton & Pippa Norris. Easton in his classic model distinguished among different objects of support, including support for the community, the regime & the authorities. Moreover, he made a distinction between the specific support, a quid pro quo for the fulfillment of demands, & diffuse support, unconditional attachment to political objects & a reservoir of favorable attitudes or good will. This conceptual framework was recently revisited by Norris, who expanded the classification into a five-fold framework distinguishing between political support for the community, regime principles, regime performance, regime institutions, & political actors. Political engagement is defined here to include psychological as well as actual political involvement. In more concrete terms, it comprises the following dimensions: 1) interest in politics; 2) voting & propensity to vote in elections or referenda; 3) engagement in community politics; 4) partisanship, including both the party membership & party identification; 5) participation or propensity to engage in unconventional political activity. The analysis resulted in classification of ten types of political outlook: 'prosoviet radical', 'soviet system builder', 'moderate critic', 'rural wisdom optimist', 'apathetic youth', 'rational youth', 'disappointed activist', 'civic optimist', 'right1st democrat' & 'rightist radical'. These types can be expected to represent the dominant patterns of political attitudes & political behavior in rural Lithuania. The investigation reveals that political support for democracy is highly dependent on the attitudes towards the soviet past. Moreover, it is indirectly linked with the age & former social status of the respondent. The data shows that supporters of democratic regime are usually right-oriented or young persons. Surprisingly, the satisfaction with current regime performance is not linked with the support for current authorities. Finally, the results suggest that most disappointed persons are more skeptical toward conventional forms of political engagement & are likely to support unconventional political activities. The actual political behavior, however, is not dependent on the level of political support. 2 Appendixes. Adapted from the source document.
The dynamics of the attitudes towards Lithuania's membership in the EU could be divided into three periods: decreasing number of membership supporters till the beginning of 2000 (distrust in state institutions, lack of information, economical fears), increasing support till referendum (informational campaign, beliefs in positive impact on economy) and stable support of membership after referendum & accession. The main positive changes according to public opinion are possibilities to work abroad & reduced unemployment. The main negative change is rise of prices. Rise of prices was the main reason of skeptical attitudes towards euro introduction. On the other hand, according to Eurobarometer Lithuania, is one of the most euro-optimistic countries. Public opinion polls in EU show that attitudes towards Lithuania are positive. Adapted from the source document.
The contemporary information & communication technologies (ICT) will not, by themselves, resolve the issues, faced by Lithuanian public administration in designing & implementing its policies. This is the major argument of the article, supported by the available empirical information & various secondary sources. Why the bureaucracy, which is often considered as being slow, inflexible & inertic should suddenly change due to the mere fact of ICT being purchased & installed? The answer is often based on some intuitive logic, which is called in this article the "ideal model of e-government." The first of the assumptions in this model claim that the public sector has the right skills to select the relevant technology. The next assumption is that once the technology is installed, it will be used competently & open-mindedly -- with the right capacities, motivations & leaders available to do that. In turn, if the technology is used competently, one can indeed expect improvements in public policy making & implementation: organizational change, better inter-institutional co-operation, development of e-services, etc. Notably, many ICT projects in the public sector fail & Lithuania is no exception in this respect. The investment does not necessarily lead to a meaningful organizational change, it does not enhance co-operation between institutions & does not improve communication & trust between the citizens & the state. Surely, the e-government is a rather new development, so one should hardly expect that all the visions will be successful outright. However, while at least some of the major problems may be anticipated in advance, the solutions are not always clear-cut. In order to take a full advantage of the ICT potential in the public sector, a clear choice of an actual model of public administration is necessary. Here a number of classic dilemmas may be identified -- regarding the relations between the public & the private sectors, internal control within the organization, sharing of responsibilities between organizations, etc. It is argued in the article that the answers to these questions in Lithuania are clear only in the official strategies & statements. Meanwhile the practice shows, that the relations between the public & the private sector are unbalanced, organizations lack the culture of critically assessing their achievements, institutions are carefully avoiding "interference" from outside into their internal matters & government is far from being conceived as a "service" to the citizens. It is also noted, that the differences between the official rhetoric & the practice may well be explained by the experience of both the soviet period as well as the accession to the EU: the institutions developed the skill of flexible adjustment to the dominant discourse without finding it necessary to change the essence of policy process. All in all, while the ICT do provide opportunities for improvement of public management, in order to take a full advantage of these opportunities it is necessary to resolve some of the classical dilemmas of public administration. In order to do that, some deeper changes of attitudes, values, & culture are necessary both in the public sector as well as in the society at large. Therefore, notwithstanding the expectation of the big change towards modernization of public sector the old saying of "plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose" is applicable for estimating the potential of the ICT to change the public sector. Adapted from the source document.
This article describes the problem of conflict of interest and its regulation in Lithuania. After a short introduction of conflict of interest and related notions, types, and forms of conflict of interest the Lithuanian case study is followed. After a short historical review of such conflict regulation in interwar Lithuanian Republic period the analyses turns to contemporary legislation concerning this ethical problem. Lithuanian Law on the Compatibility of Public and Private Interests in the Public Service was edited three times what allows the author to distinguish tendencies and evaluate them in the broader context. The author provides a snapshot of the conflict of interest in codes of ethics of Lithuanian public institutions. The analyses of legislation regulating conflict of interest in politicians and civil servants activity allows concluding that behavior of civil servants is more regulated due to their role. Adapted from the source document.
In the article, while analyzing Lithuanian foreign policy, specific attention is paid to the link between the national identity & foreign policy. This link could be the key in analyzing the question, if in truth Lithuanian foreign policy has reached a particular point, which could be named as international isolation or at least a tendency towards it, & if yes, -- then why The article proposes the following answers to these questions -- to abandon the complex of bandwagoning & to acquire more self-reliance as democratic national state. Corrections of domestic politics & democratic legalization of political trends in Lithuania is necessary. Herewith, it is noticed that it would be a big mistake to go to the extremes, eventually even trying to reconsider the feasibility of EU & NATO membership. Euro-Atlantic institutions remain the major guarantee of stability in Europe, including Lithuania. Adapted from the source document.
Article analyses processes of parliamentary control in Lithuania. The research is based on the "Agent -- Principal" theory approach, which demonstrates a simplified perception of parliamentary control in Lithuania. That induces the application of a limited, ie., information-based, means of parliamentary control in political practice. Parliamentary control in Lithuania is perceived as an act of subordinate coercion by governmental institutions, rather than continuous communication & cooperation. That causes the fragmentation of parliamentary control. Due to semi-presidential system's delegation of authority & accountability, parliamentary control is rather complicated in Lithuania. Efficient parliamentary control is impossible without political parties, which should be prepared to professionally govern or compete. Lithuanian political parties seem unprepared for these tasks. Research suggests that simplified perception of parliamentary control prevailing in Lithuania complicates its implementation in practice, though institutional preconditions for the implementation of efficient parliamentary control are present. Adapted from the source document.
