Support for Democracy and Citizens Participation in Lithuania: From Alienation Toward Active Citizenship

Democracy is rather fragile, when it is based on formal democratical institutions. Support for govermental institutions and citizen participation in the process of political governance is an essential condition for the functioning of democracy and ensuring the stability of society. Citizens are free to choose a number of ways to influence the political process. However, not all modes of political participation are equal with respect to the consolidation of newly established democratic system. High levels of support for democracy and participation in conventional political acts constitute a precondition for a stable democratic system. On the other hand, other authors argue that low levels of institutional trust and participation in legal protest actions may be considered as  acts of self-expression and it is not dangerous for stability of democracy.

The focus of this paper is to identify and to investigate types of citizenship in Lithuania. What groups of citizens in Lithuania may be distinguished in accordance with their level of evaluations of democracy, trust to political institutions and participation in political acts? What are the factors that determine the differences between types of citizens? What are the causes and explanations of different patterns of satisfaction of democracy, political trust and participation between types of citizens?

Based on the survey conducted in Lithuania in 2010 and 60 semi-structured interviews, the paper draws conclusions that  four  types of citizens (trustful reserved, non-trustful reserved, non-trustful active, non-trustful passive) may be indentified according to evaluations of democracy, institutional trust and participation in political acts. From theoretical perspectives of active traditional and postmodern citizenship, the characteristics of identified groups are mixed, because of socioeconomic and cultural conditions in Lithuania