JournalTOCs

Politologija
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This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Print) 1392-1681 - ISSN (Online) 2424-6034
Published by Vilnius University

[38 journals]

Editorial Board and Table of Contents
- Authors: Justinas Dementavičius
  Pages: 1 - 7
  Abstract: -
  PubDate: 2022-12-19
  Issue No: Vol. 108, No. 4 (2022)
Rehabilitation of Perpetrators of International Crimes – Myth or
Reality' Case Study of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former
Yugoslavia
- Authors: Lina Strupinskienė, Indrė Jankauskaitė-Činčė
  Pages: 8 - 41
  Abstract: Of the 92 persons convicted at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), 60 have already served their sentences and were released. Even though perpetrators’ rehabilitation and their public behaviour in post-conflict environments are essential for countering denial, establishing an authoritative version of the truth, and sustainable reconciliation, we still know little about what happens after they return to their communities. This article attempts to examine ICTY convicts’ rehabilitation by assessing the quality and the result of existing rehabilitation programs (e.g., how much the public behaviour of those released matches the expectations of the victim’s community, what their relationship is with their guilt and crimes committed). Aside from secondary sources, it draws on 23 semi-structured interviews with victims of war, representatives from victims’ associations, and human rights advocates from the region. It finds that in the context of the absence of specialized rehabilitation programs and lack of oversight of the post-conviction stage at the ICTY, the convicted perpetrators return to communities that support and enable them. Hailed by specific enthusiastic audiences back home, ICTY convicts often fulfil their expectations, closing a vicious circle that dramatically curbs the individual or collective transformative potential of their punishment regarding reckoning with the past and moving towards reconciliation.
  PubDate: 2022-12-19
  DOI: 10.15388/Polit.2022.108.1
  Issue No: Vol. 108, No. 4 (2022)
Reliance on Conspiracy Theories Among Lithuanian Population
- Authors: Arvydas Grišinas, Ainius Lašas, Ignas Kalpokas
  Pages: 42 - 84
  Abstract: This article analyses the statistical validity of popular explanations for peoples‘s tendency to rely on conspiracy theories in Lithuanian public discourse. The paper discovers that out of four most popular explanations, belief in paranormal phenomena and determinist thinking have the strongest correlation. The evaluation of one‘s own perceived financial wellbeing also proves significance. Meanwhile, education, political knowledge and actual income level either correlate with tendency to rely on conspiratorial thinking sporadically or does not correlate at all. The study is based on a representative survey, conducted in Lithuania, in late 2021, and seeks to delineate the initial outlines for further research on the case of Lithuania, which has been only scarcely explored.
  PubDate: 2022-12-29
  DOI: 10.15388/Polit.2022.108.2
  Issue No: Vol. 108, No. 4 (2022)
Memory in Family: Theoretical Aspects and Insights from the Study on Past
Regime’s Memory Transmission
- Authors: Liucija Vervečkienė
  Pages: 8 - 50
  Abstract: Difficult state-level questions of how to remember previous regimes are particularly linked with the „consumer“ side – specific areas of mnemonic socialization, such as families. A new generation raised during post-soviet transformations makes meaning of the recent past they have no direct or very limited experience of. This once again actualizes the questions of memory transmission within specific groups such as families initially analyzed in the case of memory of the crimes against humanity, mainly Holocaust. This article presents a theoretical overview of the factors to be kept mind in order to understand the remembering process within families: identification with the family memories, mnemonic socialization, loyalty relations, memory media and relation with the collective memory. Theoretical insights are supplemented by the empirical date of Lithuanian case (16 family conversations conducted in 2018–2020). Oldest members of the family still recall the begining of the previous regime, parents were raised in it whereas the third family generation was educated with a strong state emphasis on the previous regime as occupation and repressions-based period of the past. Those family experiences failing to fall into the category of a victim become uncomfortable. A shadow of collaboration imposed by the collective memory level leads to silencing or justification of those family memories.
  PubDate: 2022-10-10
  DOI: 10.15388/Polit.2022.107.1
  Issue No: Vol. 107, No. 3 (2022)
Populist Attitudes and Voting: Does Populist Voters vote for New Political
Parties' (The Case of 2016 Seimas Elections')
- Authors: Paulius Skirkevičius
  Pages: 51 - 89
  Abstract: Concerming the success of new/renewed political parties in Lithuania, quite often they are labelled as populist ones .This article seeks to answer the question – do populist attitudes of individuals could be variables that explains voting for new political parties' Firstly, we analyze the structure of populist attitudes in Lithunia. The analysis using attitudes measures suggested by CSES revealed that these attitudes fits theorectical expectations quite well. Two dimensions of populist attitudes can be distinguished – anti-elitism and the one concerning peoples role in politics. Futher analysis of electoral behavior, that populist attitudes does not explain voting for the new political party, other variables such as political support/trust does explain it better. However the analysis is limited to one elections and one political party, so the conclusions should be considered with caution and further analysis is needed.
  PubDate: 2022-10-18
  DOI: 10.15388/Polit.2022.107.2
  Issue No: Vol. 107, No. 3 (2022)
The Structure of Strategic Communications during the War: the Case-Study
of the Telegram Channel Insider Ukraine
- Authors: Nataliia Karpchuk, Bohdan Yuskiv, Oksana Pelekh
  Pages: 90 - 119
  Abstract: This article focuses at the issue of strategic communications of Ukraine during the Russian-Ukrainian war, which began on February 24, 2022. The authors consider strategic communications as a system consisting of invariant and variable components that can be projected in media reports. The authors proceed from the fact that, on the one hand, the media are an instrument of strategic communications, and on the other, strategic communications are transformed, reflected in media reports. The study is aimed to reveal the structure of strategic communications, which is characteristic of the period of armed conflict. Reports of the Insider Ukraine Telegram channel during the first 100 days of the war were analyzed. On the basis of a reflexive thematic analysis, using a one-way dispersion analysis, it has been found out that the strategic communications of Ukraine during the war period consist of the following invariant components: interactive communications of Ukraine, operational communications of Ukraine, extraoperational communications of Ukraine, operational and extraoperational communications concerning the RF. These generalized components have their own sub-components, the intensity or total absence of which in media reports can be related to specific events of the war period. This study contributes to the understanding of the structure of strategic communications in general and during the war in particular.
  PubDate: 2022-11-11
  DOI: 10.15388/Polit.2022.107.3
  Issue No: Vol. 107, No. 3 (2022)
Maybe It’s Time to change the Order of the Seimas Elections'
- Authors: Rolandas Tučas, Giedrius Kanapka
  Pages: 120 - 157
  Abstract: This article discusses the problems of the mixed parallel voting electoral system applied in the Seimas elections, paying more attention to its geographical aspect – the problems caused by the frequent redrawing of single-member constituencies due to demographic processes. The article presents the principles and methods of electoral constituency delimitation in other countries, the experience gained during the redrawing of the boundaries of single-member constituencies for the 2016 and 2020 Seimas elections, and highlights the problems encountered. The problems of the Lithuanian electoral system discussed in the article are recommended to be solved in the future by using only proportional representation for the election of the Seimas, dividing the state into 6 multi-member constituencies (the 7th constituency is for citizens of our country living abroad), which would be formed on the basis of counties, merging smaller counties together. A similar procedure for the election of the Seimas in Lithuania was applied in the third decade of the 20th century, therefore, this reform should be called the restitution of the interwar parliamentary elections.
  PubDate: 2022-12-01
  DOI: 10.15388/Polit.2022.107.4
  Issue No: Vol. 107, No. 3 (2022)
Edström Håkan, Dennis Gyllensporre, Jacob Westberg. Military strategy of
small states: responding to external shocks of the 21st century.
Routledge, 2019, 197 p.
- Authors: Dovydas Rogulis
  Pages: 158 - 164
  Abstract: -
  PubDate: 2022-12-02
  DOI: 10.15388/Polit.2022.107.5
  Issue No: Vol. 107, No. 3 (2022)
Visual Securitization: Commemorating the Partisan War in Lithuanian
Foreign and Security Policy
- Authors: Viktorija Rimaitė-Beržiūnienė
  Pages: 11 - 52
  Abstract: In 2008 and 2014 the Russian-Georgian war, the military conflict in Ukraine, and the annexation of Crimea have had an impact on Lithuanian foreign and security policy. In the context of these events, Lithuania was concerned about the mobilization of conventional security measures, i.e., strengthening its national defense sector. However, the role as well as the impact of “soft” (unconventional) response devices and strategies in the Lithuanian case has still received little academic interest. This paper, using the analysis of visual collective memory practices (monuments), aims to show the links between collective memory as well as its visually tangible forms and the formation of foreign and security policy in Lithuania. By examining the visual practices reminiscent of guerrilla warfare built in Lithuanian public spaces after 2014, it is revealed how the use of collective memory contributed to the perceived threat from Russia, which had a significant impact on the formation and implementation of foreign and security policy.
  PubDate: 2022-08-23
  DOI: 10.15388/Polit.2022.106.1
  Issue No: Vol. 106, No. 2 (2022)
What Kind of Lithuania are We Fighting for When We Fight for the
Lithuanian Freedom Fighters’ Memorial'
- Authors: Rūta Statulevičiūtė-Kaučikienė
  Pages: 53 - 88
  Abstract: Efforts to build a memorial to Lithuanian freedom fighters in Lukiškės Square in Vilnius have been fruitless for the third decade. During this period, as many as four competitions for artistic ideas were organized, but due to the dissatisfaction of various groups in society, no project was implemented in the square. The article analyzes the 2012-2020 period, which is framed by two state-organized competitions. Applying Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory, it is aimed to open the very core of the conflict and to explain how and what historical memories of the Lithuanian freedom fighters are articulated by competing discourses consisting of linguistic and non-linguistic practices. Statements of politicians, cultural professionals, and the public in the national media and their modus operandi allow to identify opposite concepts of freedom, state, freedom fighters, monument, and its functions, and to single out the essential trophy of the competing discourses, an idea on which the public sharply disagrees.
  PubDate: 2022-08-23
  DOI: 10.15388/Polit.2022.106.2
  Issue No: Vol. 106, No. 2 (2022)