Citizenship Typology in Lithuania: Traditional Active or Postmodern Citizenship?

Abstract

Traditionally active citizenship has been conceived in statist terms and linked to citizen participation and support for democratic institutions. Proponents of the postmodern citizenship indicate that the decline of traditional forms of citizen participation such as memberships in political parties and trade unions, voting, declining trust in government and rising political cynicism among publics may be explained as the shift from traditional forms of citizenship to the new ones. Citizens are free to choose a number of ways to influence the political process; however, not all modes of citizen participation are of equal value with respect to the stability of newly established democratic system. The focus of this article is to investigate what types of citizenship actually occurs in Lithuania. Based on the data of the fourth wave of European Values survey conducted in Lithuania in 2008, the article draws conclusions that traditional active and postmodern citizenship occurs in Lithuania, but it does not confirm theoretical expectations. From theoretical perspective of the active citizenship, the characteristics of identified groups (the trustless active, the trustful conventional participants, the trustless conventional participants, the trustful reserved, trustless non-active) are mixed, because of socioeconomic and cultural conditions in Lithuania.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ss.71.2.538