The aim of the article is to reveal the origins and the meaning of statesman. Beside historical and philosophical aspects of subject, the enhanced attention is given to the tradition of Lithuanian political thought. The following questions are pursued to answer: on what the grounds did the concept of statesman become the part of Lithuanian political discourse? What are functional and valuable meanings of the concept? Political science debate is often the continuation of the political debate. Though the article does not aim to extend the latter. It is consciously desired the debate on statesmen raise to the theoretical level. The authors want to present what is the statesman and to highlight the distinction between statesman and politician. Adapted from the source document.
The article compares W. Wilson's, M. Weber's & J. Schumpeter's approaches towards the role of politicians & bureaucrats. W. Wilson proposed to separate politics & administration, while M. Weber considered that bureaucracy should be subordinated to the will of political leaders & J. Schumpeter argued that professional bureaucracy should be sufficiently strong to advice & even to direct politicians. The twofold explanation is provided to explain this divergence of approaches. First, it could be explained by the variety of parliamentary systems, related to the different executive-legislative linkage, ranging from the British-type of premiership of cabinet system to the French type of assembly government. Second, it could be explained by the aims of democratic societies to have both political responsive & professionally responsible bureaucracy. Adapted from the source document.
The aim o f this paper is to analyze the theoretical foundations and practices of parliamentarians' qualification development for a successful functioning of the Parliament and to introduce the empirical research related to the attitudes the Lithuanian parliamentarians towards training and participation in educational programs. The empirical research showed that qualification development of the Lithuanian parliamentarians is not systematic and the attitudes of the Lithuanian parliamentarians towards qualification development are ambiguous: from considerations that such activities are a waste of tax payers' money to taking personal responsibility and active involvement in qualification development. The system of qualification development of the Lithuanian parliamentarians should be improved. Special attention should be paid to the parliamentarians' consciousness, ability to understand their own limitations and readiness to learn.
The aim o f this paper is to analyze the theoretical foundations and practices of parliamentarians' qualification development for a successful functioning of the Parliament and to introduce the empirical research related to the attitudes the Lithuanian parliamentarians towards training and participation in educational programs. The empirical research showed that qualification development of the Lithuanian parliamentarians is not systematic and the attitudes of the Lithuanian parliamentarians towards qualification development are ambiguous: from considerations that such activities are a waste of tax payers' money to taking personal responsibility and active involvement in qualification development. The system of qualification development of the Lithuanian parliamentarians should be improved. Special attention should be paid to the parliamentarians' consciousness, ability to understand their own limitations and readiness to learn.
The article discusses factors, determining loyalty of the European Parliament members, which is marginalized in most of researches on the European Parliament. The initial assumption holds that as given the rates of loyalty to the national states are high it is groundless to assess it as a neutral variable. Loyalty of the European Parliament members to national states can significantly contribute to the studies of European Parliament's internal relations and power contribution. The first section of this article presents and analyses main insights of the influence of national parties and political groups on the voting behavior of the European Parliament members, justifying objective reasons which caused marginalization of importance of the European Parliament members' loyalty to national states. It should be noted that the European Parliament members, like most of other politicians, have fixed set of objectives forming their choices. Goals of re-election, positions and policy (leading to power gains/losses) are leading. In the hands of national parties and political groups these goals become instruments of pressure and enforcement, determining behavior of the European Parliament members. National parties controlling the access of candidates to the electoral lists and defining their position on those lists gain extreme importance in the competition for loyalty. Since political groups of the European Parliament have dominant political force for the second objective of the parliament members each of them have an interest in maintaining balance between loyalty to the national party and particular political group. Loyalty to national states loses its importance as it has minimal influence on the success of achieving objectives of the parliament members. The second section is devoted to the research of links between voting of European Parliament members and their national states, more specifically -- to the analysis of European Parliament members' loyalty to their national states. Lithuania is chosen as a case study. The fact that loyalty to the national states during 2004-2009 and 2009-2014 terms of the European Parliament is over 85 % indicates that this variable should not be seen as accidental or insignificant. It is argued that loyalty to the national state mainly reflects voting unity of national delegation. The rest of this section analyzes factors which can explain why, despite the fact that national delegation is very diverse in the context of left-right ideological divide, rates of loyalty to the national states, demonstrated by the national delegations, remain very high. The article concludes stating that loyalty of European Parliament members to their national states is a valuable source of data for the analysis of the party behavior in the European Parliament as well as outside it and should not be overlooked. Adapted from the source document.
Straipsnyje is viesosios tarnybos susitarimu modelio perspektyvos aptariamos viesojo sektoriaus politizacijos teorines prielaidos ir nagrinejamas sarysis su viesojo sektoriaus vadovu lojalumu politikams. Remiantis siomis izvalgomis aptariami Lietuvos viesajame valdyme istoriskai susikloste egalitariniai, o kai kuriais atvejais ir individualistiniai lojalumo elementai, kuriuos sustiprino fragmentuota sovietine institucine struktura su lygiagrecia personaliniu lojalumu ir neformaliu rysiu tinklu besiremiancia valdymo struktura. Taip pat apzvelgiama siandieninio Lietuvos viesojo valdymo lojalumo sampratos fragmentacija, parodant, kad politiku ir vadovu santykius apibrezti kaip sutarima galima tik tam tikruose sektoriuose, o daugumoje sriciu lojalumo aspekta politikai ir viesuju organizaciju vadovai interpretuoja skirtingai. Tai vyksta nepaisant bandymu institucionalizuoti su istorine tradicija nesisiejancia hierarchine lojalumo struktura This article deals with politicisation of the public sector in Lithuania in the context of ensuring loyalty of high public officials to the politics of the government of the day. The theoretical framework of Public Service Bargains (PSBs) was used in order to analyse historical changes and the contemporary perception of loyalty among politicians and high public officials. From the PSBs perspective a historically dominant egalitarian type of loyalty bargain with some individualistic elements among the ruling elite is discussed. During the Soviet period this type of loyalty bargain was secured by a personal loyalty network based on formal and informal ties. Integration to the EU was a factor that was used by the administrative elite of Lithuania in order to try eliminating most of the instruments ensuring formal loyalty and securing a hierarchical loyalty bargain in a formal and legalistic way without reaching a common understanding with politicians. Today's politico-administrative interaction provides a mixed picture regarding the praxis of loyalty bargain in the Lithuanian public sector. There is some evidence that politicians prefer an egalitarian loyalty bargain and do not recognise a formal hierarchical loyalty setting. This situation could be regarded as cheating on loyalty bargain from both sides that provoke politicians to search for new ways in achieving the loyalty of high public officials to the politics of the incumbent government and exercise politicisation practices for that purpose. 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.
Siame ivadiniame straipsnyje pristatomi specialiojo 'Politologijos' numerio tiriamieji klausimai ir turinys, taip pat pateikiamas bendras analizes pagrindas, kuri taikant nagrinejama, kokie veiksniai gali paaiskinti vadovu kaita ir politizacija skirtingose Lietuvos viesojo sektoriaus organizaciju (agenturu, valstybes valdomu imoniu, asmens sveikatos prieziuros ir svietimo istaigu) grupese. Palyginus visu straipsniu rezultatus nustatyta, kad viesojo sektoriaus organizaciju vadovu kaita geriausiai paaiskina valdanciosios daugumos ir vyriausybiu pokyciai, o politizacija - politiniu partiju dalyvavimas valdzioje, ju tinklai ir politiku isitikinimai. Taciau asmens sveikatos prieziuros ir svietimo istaigu grupese, kurioms budinga didesne politizacija, yra statistinis rysys tarp vadovu stabilumo ir politizacijos. Valstybes tarnybos reglamentavimo bei teisiniu nuostatu igyvendinimo uztikrinimo veiksnys nera labai reiksmingas - tai daro itaka tik ribotam istaigu prie ministeriju vadovu skaiciui. Pagaliau aiskinant politizacijos skirtumus gana svarbus yra tokie viesojo administravimo veiksniai kaip politinis valdymo sriciu jautrumas ir finansiniai organizaciju istekliai This introductory article presents the common research questions of this special issue and offers a joint framework for analysing the change and politicisation of the senior levels of management of different groups of Lithuanian public sector organisations (agencies, state-owned enterprises, personal health care organisations and educational organisations). A comparison of all contributions to this special issue revealed that repeating alterations of governing majorities and governments best explain the frequent turnover of heads of different Lithuanian public sector organisations (except those of personal health care and educational organisations). However, their politicisation is associated with party entrenchment in power, density of the party networks and politicians' beliefs. Furthermore, variations in the scope of politicisation are related to such administrative factors as the political salience of policy areas and organisational functions, as well as the budget size. Therefore, it is the interplay of political and administrative factors that determines the change and politicisation of management in various public sector organisations. Adapted from the source document.
The main conclusions made in the article are as follows: 1) the use of the internet by politicians as an arena for discussions is increasing, 2) the main topics discussed by politicians in the internet are politics, economy, energy and social policy, 3) the ways in which politicians are discussing political issues differ depending on the number of years that a politician participates in the political arena, the topic or issue under discussion, 4) economic and political issues are discussed in more sophisticated ways in comparison with discussions of social policy issues which are presented in a very simple, clear way with the arguments that stress the aspects important for society or for some specific groups of citizens, 5) in presenting ideas and in discussions, the politicians prefer to present their own the position instead of presenting position of a political party. These main research findings lead to some conclusions about changes in the political discourse, but they also show quite a strong and manipulative role of the Internet media in selecting politicians and their publications, so it shows that there is still a strong role of the Internet media in constructing the political reality and presenting this "window" to political reality, which is strongly influenced by the position of the media.
The main conclusions made in the article are as follows: 1) the use of the internet by politicians as an arena for discussions is increasing, 2) the main topics discussed by politicians in the internet are politics, economy, energy and social policy, 3) the ways in which politicians are discussing political issues differ depending on the number of years that a politician participates in the political arena, the topic or issue under discussion, 4) economic and political issues are discussed in more sophisticated ways in comparison with discussions of social policy issues which are presented in a very simple, clear way with the arguments that stress the aspects important for society or for some specific groups of citizens, 5) in presenting ideas and in discussions, the politicians prefer to present their own the position instead of presenting position of a political party. These main research findings lead to some conclusions about changes in the political discourse, but they also show quite a strong and manipulative role of the Internet media in selecting politicians and their publications, so it shows that there is still a strong role of the Internet media in constructing the political reality and presenting this "window" to political reality, which is strongly influenced by the position of the media.
The main conclusions made in the article are as follows: 1) the use of the internet by politicians as an arena for discussions is increasing, 2) the main topics discussed by politicians in the internet are politics, economy, energy and social policy, 3) the ways in which politicians are discussing political issues differ depending on the number of years that a politician participates in the political arena, the topic or issue under discussion, 4) economic and political issues are discussed in more sophisticated ways in comparison with discussions of social policy issues which are presented in a very simple, clear way with the arguments that stress the aspects important for society or for some specific groups of citizens, 5) in presenting ideas and in discussions, the politicians prefer to present their own the position instead of presenting position of a political party. These main research findings lead to some conclusions about changes in the political discourse, but they also show quite a strong and manipulative role of the Internet media in selecting politicians and their publications, so it shows that there is still a strong role of the Internet media in constructing the political reality and presenting this "window" to political reality, which is strongly influenced by the position of the media.
The main conclusions made in the article are as follows: 1) the use of the internet by politicians as an arena for discussions is increasing, 2) the main topics discussed by politicians in the internet are politics, economy, energy and social policy, 3) the ways in which politicians are discussing political issues differ depending on the number of years that a politician participates in the political arena, the topic or issue under discussion, 4) economic and political issues are discussed in more sophisticated ways in comparison with discussions of social policy issues which are presented in a very simple, clear way with the arguments that stress the aspects important for society or for some specific groups of citizens, 5) in presenting ideas and in discussions, the politicians prefer to present their own the position instead of presenting position of a political party. These main research findings lead to some conclusions about changes in the political discourse, but they also show quite a strong and manipulative role of the Internet media in selecting politicians and their publications, so it shows that there is still a strong role of the Internet media in constructing the political reality and presenting this "window" to political reality, which is strongly influenced by the position of the media.
The Internet and interactive social media are not only playing an increasingly important role in people's daily life, but are also becoming a widely used channel of political communication which sees a constant growth in the volume of communication content generated by politicians. Due to their features such as easy and free access, social media are available to all politicians, but no studies have so far been done in Lithuania which would analyse the extent to which the participants in the political process use the channels of social media for the purpose of political communication. In this article, the use of social media for political communication purposes is analysed from the perspective of the digital divide. The definition and concept of the digital divide are clearly described in the text. Different categories of the manifestation of this process are identified. Moreover, this article also presents the results of the research of social media as it was used by our country's politicians during the municipal elections campaign in 2011. They reveal different manifestations of the digital divide based on different demographic and social-political characteristics of politicians, such as municipality size, gender, age, education, income, political affiliation and institutional position.
