Suchergebnisse

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Partisan activity has been the main and the most important mode of institutionalized political participation (in addition to electoral participation) in the modern democracy. Even though mass party membership is a distinct feature of modern political system (although not necessarily democratic), since 1960-ies the decline of party membership is observed in many democratic countries. Lithuania is a typical example of post-communist region, where party membership is regarded as a specific elitist activity rather than an ordinary practice of political involvement. In the article, the attitudes of Lithuanians towards party membership are analyzed to answer the question if and why people are not keen to join political parties. Public attitudes are explored using the data of a representative public opinion survey carried out in 2005 and qualitative data of in-depth interviews with ordinary people collected in 2008. Using a mixed method research strategy, the article analyses the image of political parties in Lithuania, determines the potential of party membership and investigates the dominant reasons of avoiding partisan activity. In the first part of the article, the theories explaining partisan activity are presented. In addition to Civic voluntarism model and General incentives theory used by Paul Whiteley and Patrick Seyd to explain partisan activity, the broader theories explaining changes of political culture and transformation of party models are discussed. Moreover, the theoretical arguments for the exceptionalism of post-communist societies are presented. In the second part of the article, the analysis of the qualitative data is presented. The exploration of public attitudes reveals that partisan activity can be perceived in several different ways: as a specific occupation, as a civic self-expression, as belonging to power elite, as a privilege, as dependence, and as partiality. These images of parties held by people are related to their attitudes towards party membership. The reasons provided by the people of not joining political parties can be grouped into three groups: 1) the lack of necessary resources or personal characteristics (e.g. old age, low education, etc.); 2) critical attitudes towards political parties; 3) dislike of partisan activity because of indifference towards politics or individualism and appreciation of personal independence. In the third part, the quantitative data drawn from the public opinion survey is analysed. The data shows a surprisingly high potential of party membership in Lithuania: about 11 percent of all respondents and about 20 percent of respondents in the age group of 18-39 have an inclination to join a political party. However, 87 percent of individuals admit that they were not invited to join a political party during the last 5 years. This proves that Lithuanian political parties are not active in expanding their membership. The quantitative data approve the trends observed from the qualitative research. The two most popular reasons of not joining a party are the lack of resources or necessary characteristics (surprisingly, young age seems to be one of the most important of them) and an indifference towards politics. These two motives fit well into the Civic voluntarism model. Disappointment with politics or a negative attitude towards political parties in general, contrary to expectations, proved to be of secondary importance. The importance of individualist attitudes, i.e. the avoidance of commitment and appreciation of independence, unfortunately, could not be evaluated due to the lack of data. Summing up, the analysis of Lithuanian case suggests that low party membership in post-communist countries might be explained by low demand rather than low supply. In other words, we should look for the explanation of low enrolment in the process of recruitment of party members rather than in the attitudes of people. The research do not provide any evidence for a popular theory of "communist legacy" claiming that a "bad" image of parties inherited from communist regime accounts for the low party membership in post-communist societies. On the contrary, the data demonstrate rather positive attitudes towards partisan activity among Lithuanian population. Adapted from the source document.

The article introduces three historical and linguistic approaches to political thought: Anglophonic history of ideas, German conceptual history and French history of political. It is claimed, that these schools could offer new tools for Lithuanian political sciences and help for better understanding of Lithuanian political thought and tradition. The article identifies main similarities and differences between all three approaches, and also shows what kind of questions could be raised and answers given while using different approaches in studies of political. The last part of article presents context of current studies of political thought in Lithuania and indicates possible trends for future studies while using more historical approaches to political. Adapted from the source document.

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The main aim of the article is to reveal problem of decentralization of autonomy for local authorities & territorial administration in Lithuania. The reform of administrative division & autonomy for local authorities of the country runs slowly & complicated. Though society, scientists, various branches of government has a lot of various propositions & discussions have been taking place for more than 15 years, the important decisions cannot be made because of the lack of political willpower. One could be under impression that the reform will never be completed. The main reasons of such a disturbances are related to the absence of authentic traditions of autonomy for local authorities as well as to constant changes of centralized models of territorial administration. The unfinished re-form not only disturbs even development of the country but also complicates development of autonomy for local authorities system, which is one of the most important institutions of modern democracy. This also disturbs formation of regional self-consciousness, identity at regional & local level. Finally, it complicates the development of modern civil society in Lithuania. The history of Lithuania shows that even during 20th century models of territorial administration of the country have been changed several times, though centralized government prevailed & autonomy for local authorities was very limited. This prevented formation of territorial autonomy for local authorities & community traditions, solidarity among population was decreasing while indifference to the social needs was increasing. The Soviet period demolished the first appearances of territorial (regional) identity. This consequently caused the lack of willpower to implement new reform of territorial administration. The same as during the years of independence before World War II there is still uncertainty whether centralized or vast autonomy for local authorities should be chosen as a priority. Lithuanian government has always paid the main attention to the reform of regional governing system but autonomy for local authorities is almost totally forgotten. The absence of local & regional autonomy for local authorities makes Lithuania a unique rather unitary state, with a transformed soviet administrative division. Because of these reasons the problem of reformation & decentralization of territorial administration of Lithuania remains topical. Adapted from the source document.

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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.

In this article, a few theoretical aspects of citizens' political sophistication are analyzed: contextual concepts that are used, different conceptions of political sophistication, variables used in the research and factors implementing political sophistication. Most of the academic works on political sophistication come from Western countries, therefore the assumptions used by foreign scholars are applied in the case of Lithuania. Political sophistication is understood as political knowledge held by an individual as well as his/her interest in politics. In the empirical part of this article, the results of the 2008 representative survey data statistical analysis are presented: Lithuanian citizens' political sophistication index and factors that implement the level of political sophistication. One can conclude that the most influential factor that causes the existing level of political sophistication is citizens' age. Relatively more political sophisticated are older, better educated citizens who discuss political issues with others more frequently, use more information sources (radio, Internet, press, TV news) and gain comparatively higher income. Adapted from the source document.

Sign Lithuania has joined NATO & the EU. However, one should ask themselves a question whether the integration process has already ended & whether we have become an integral part of Europe. Such doubts appear after taking a closer look at our information space, which contains signs of informational cultural expansion from the East. In the information age the concept of power is changing. Some countries compete for ideological & cultural dominance in the information space of other countries and, consequently, the latter seek to protect their space from such influences. Lithuania has also entered such a battlefield, therefore, the conception of a national information space & information attacks towards that space should be analyzed more thoroughly. At the present moment, the main goal is to make the Lithuanian academic society & especially the general public aware of the problem of the information warfare, its threats as well as the principles of information security in respect of an individual & the whole of society. In Russia, the theoretical level of this issue has been traversed a long time ago & practical actions are being taken today: strategic documents concerning information security were adopted five years ago, concrete institutions responsible for the implementation of a particular information policy in the "near abroad" countries are being established Russia has been aiming & still aims to keep Lithuania in the sphere of its control. Thus, Russia has started to employ new tools of power, namely, information resources, telecommunications & the media. The consequences of such information pressure from the East are evident: the results of a research conducted by RAIT last September show that the majority of Lithuanians prefer watching Russian films with Lithuanian subtitles & English or other Western films dubbed in Lithuanian. In order to change the present situation, an active & independent information policy in the Lithuanian information space is necessary. The article analyses changes in the concept of power in the information age. Soft power, comprised of information & media control, is presented as a significant lever used by major states in informational & geopolitical warfare. The article also discusses a transformed concept of geopolitics & the concept of neocolonialism. The general understanding of information space is presented & measures how to influence it are discussed. The programs broadcast by the Lithuanian television networks are presented as a specific reflection of the Lithuanian information space. An assumption is made based on the analysis of the Russian share of TV broadcasts in Lithuania that there are evident signs of informational-cultural expansion from the East in the Lithuanian information space. Adapted from the source document.