Suchergebnisse

The article analyzes the European Union's influence on the political participation of ethnic minorities in first and second European elections held after Lithuania's accession to the EU in 2004 and 2009. The author provides a brief theoretical overview of the EU's influence on Member States regarding ethnic minority policy, representation of ethnic minorities and ethnic minority participation in the politics. Analysis of the programs and strategies to attract voters in European Parliament elections of political parties representing ethnic minorities finds that the European issues and European values hadn't significant effect (with exceptions in 2009) on electoral programs and patterns of political participation. However, Polish and Russian ethnic minority political parties in shaping the strategies of the coalition or joint electoral list in 2004 and 2009 EP elections were not directly intended to win seats in the EP, but testing these strategies for the upcoming parliamentary elections in 2004 and municipal council elections in 2011.

The article analyzes the European Union's influence on the political participation of ethnic minorities in first and second European elections held after Lithuania's accession to the EU in 2004 and 2009. The author provides a brief theoretical overview of the EU's influence on Member States regarding ethnic minority policy, representation of ethnic minorities and ethnic minority participation in the politics. Analysis of the programs and strategies to attract voters in European Parliament elections of political parties representing ethnic minorities finds that the European issues and European values hadn't significant effect (with exceptions in 2009) on electoral programs and patterns of political participation. However, Polish and Russian ethnic minority political parties in shaping the strategies of the coalition or joint electoral list in 2004 and 2009 EP elections were not directly intended to win seats in the EP, but testing these strategies for the upcoming parliamentary elections in 2004 and municipal council elections in 2011.

The article analyzes the European Union's influence on the political participation of ethnic minorities in first and second European elections held after Lithuania's accession to the EU in 2004 and 2009. The author provides a brief theoretical overview of the EU's influence on Member States regarding ethnic minority policy, representation of ethnic minorities and ethnic minority participation in the politics. Analysis of the programs and strategies to attract voters in European Parliament elections of political parties representing ethnic minorities finds that the European issues and European values hadn't significant effect (with exceptions in 2009) on electoral programs and patterns of political participation. However, Polish and Russian ethnic minority political parties in shaping the strategies of the coalition or joint electoral list in 2004 and 2009 EP elections were not directly intended to win seats in the EP, but testing these strategies for the upcoming parliamentary elections in 2004 and municipal council elections in 2011.

The literature on post-communist Party Politics frequently suggests that membership organizations are not important for political parties in the region, as elections can be won with expensive media-based campaigns. The article tests this argument using the parliamentary elections in Lithuania in the 2000s held under a mixed electoral system. The results suggest that both party membership organization and campaign spending have roughly equal effects on the electoral persistence of political parties. New parties also benefit from both strong membership organizations and high campaign spending. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright holder.]

AbstractThis article analyses the political effects of the mixed parallel electoral system in Lithuania. According to the 'best of both worlds' logic, mixed systems could combine advantages from both the majoritarian and proportional formulas. However, counterarguments were also presented in the literature, pointing to the possibility of the 'worst of both worlds'. According to presented analysis of Lithuanian parliamentary elections between 1992 and 2016, the pessimistic scenario is expected when a mixed parallel electoral system is used in a new democracy with a weakly institutionalised party system and high volatility. Lithuania's mixed parallel system produces relatively disproportional election results. However, it also facilitates the fragmentation of party system. Moreover, the effects in a concrete election are hardly predictable, especially the seat bonus of election winner. Evidence in the article points to a conclusion that mixed parallel electoral systems could contribute to the 'worst of all worlds' and new democracies should avoid them.

The literature on post-communist party politics frequently suggests that membership organizations are not important for political parties in the region, as elections can be won with expensive media-based campaigns. The article tests this argument using the parliamentary elections in Lithuania in the 2000s held under a mixed electoral system. The results suggest that both party membership organization and campaign spending have roughly equal effects on the electoral persistence of political parties. New parties also benefit from both strong membership organizations and high campaign spending.

This article aims to examine strategic split-voting in mixed systems by analyzing the results of elections in three countries using mixed electoral systems—Germany, Hungary, and Lithuania—to further improve researchers' understanding of the relationship between strategic voting and ticket splitting. This is achieved by exploring new quantitative measures. The three selected countries do not use identical electoral systems, but their common characteristic is that they provide an opportunity for voters to split their ballot between an individual candidate running in a single-member constituency and a party list. This makes it possible to compare the two different types of votes and to search for patterns indicating strategic behavior. In this article, the authors introduce two analytic tools: one for determining the approximate quantity of split ballots and another for measuring strategic voting patterns based on the concentration of split tickets.