https://www.journals.vu.lt/BJPS/gateway/plugin/WebFeedGatewayPlugin/atomBaltic Journal of Political Science2021-05-13T09:25:32+00:00Liutauras Gudžinskasliutauras.gudzinskas@tspmi.vu.ltOpen Journal Systems<p>Founded in 2012. Dedicated to publishing articles on political theory, comparative politics, international relations and public policy with a focus on the states in the Baltic Sea region.</p>https://www.journals.vu.lt/BJPS/article/view/24019Examining political participation in Lithuania: The direct and mediated effects of social trust2021-05-13T09:25:32+00:00Teodora GaidytėJasper Muis
<p>This article investigates the effects of social trust, both direct and mediated – via internal and external efficacy – on different forms of political participation in post-communist Lithuania. The relationship between social trust and participation features prominently in the social capital and civic culture literature, but little empirical evidence exists that supports it, especially in post-communist democracies. We use the Lithuanian National Elections Study 2012 to test our hypotheses and replicate our analysis with the European Social Survey waves of 2014 and 2016. Our results show that social trust increases turnout, because it is related to a sense of external efficacy, which in turn enhances the likelihood that people vote. There is, however, no association between social trust and being involved in other institutionalised politics, namely, working for a political party. Interestingly, we find a positive indirect effect for non-institutionalised political participation: social trust increases external efficacy, which in turn enhances protest behaviour. Overall, however, social trust does not lead to more protesting, because the former is at the same time positively related to political trust, which seems to decrease, rather than increase non-institutionalised participation. In sum, our findings demonstrate that explanations for political participation based on the core element of social capital – social trust – work out differently for different forms of political participation.</p>
2021-05-13T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2019 Authorshttps://www.journals.vu.lt/BJPS/article/view/21751Cyborg as a Destroyer of G. Agamben’s Anthropological Machine2021-02-03T09:33:28+00:00Augustė DementavičienėDonatas Dranseika
<p>The ambition of this paper is to reason the consistency and logical coherence of the concept of Giorgio Agamben‘s anthropological machine. The important puzzle is that although Agamben emphasized the importance of having this machine destroyed, he did not suggest any clear and specific way to achieve it. The concept of a cyborg, developed by Donna Haraway, has been introduced to rethink the anthropological machine through the eyes of the cyborg. So, the main question of this paper is: whether or not the destruction of the anthropological machine is possible using the concept of the cyborg? The cyborg has been chosen because it blurs the boundaries among various oppositions. Oppositions (e.g. animal / human, man / woman, public / private) are exactly what the anthropological machine establishes, moreover, it also empowers itself through the existence of those oppositions. Cyborg has material substance inside its own “body” right from the beginning, so through this understanding we can incorporate the questions about the environment (broadly understood) and the self in every cyborg. The cyborgs, paraphrasing Haraway, are very good at cat’s cradle game when the interactions could be seen very clearly between our everyday acts and some global or political issues.</p>
2020-12-18T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2019 Authorshttps://www.journals.vu.lt/BJPS/article/view/21752Periphery as Context: Enlightenment Influences Towards Conceptual Change in Polish-Lithuanian Political Thinking in the Later 18th Century2021-02-03T09:33:24+00:00Vilius Mačkinis
<p>The specific political culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its changes, leading to state reforms by the end of the 18th century, require a methodological approach, which would allow understanding the flow and interconnectedness of the ideas between wider European and smaller local contexts. Arguing that entangled history approach allows understanding peripheral contexts better, the article presents specific aspects of the Polish-Lithuanian Enlightenment creating the context for conceptual change in political thinking. The context specific details are presented with the analysis of Vilnius University related discourse showing that the Enlightenment ideas were used to achieve certain goals of local improvement.</p>
2020-12-18T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2019 Authorshttps://www.journals.vu.lt/BJPS/article/view/428AFTER SECURITISATION: DIPLOMATS AS DE-SECURITISERS2020-02-11T09:03:13+00:00Iver B. Neumann
<p>After securitisation, there comes the further intensivation of a conflict, or violisation, or de-securitization. De-securitisation has many forms, one being diplomatisation. The article discusses peace and reconciliation work by states that are third parties to a conflict, and fastens on the pioneering state in terms of institutionalization, which is Norway. Following the Cold War, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs engaged in this field broadly. Institutionalisation hit during the 2000s. Norwegian diplomacy facilitators think of de-securitisation in four steps: mapping the parties to a conflict, clearing their path to the table, assisting in their deliberations going across that table, being indirectly involved in the monitoring of agreements. The article concludes with a suggestion to the Copenhagen School. By adapting Austin and Searle’s speech act perspective, Wittgenstein’s general understanding of linguistic and other practices have been left behind. It is time to leave the cold analytics of speech act theory behind and reclaim the full thrust of Wittgenstein’s work, which was geared towards the constitutive role of practices for everything social. We need more empirical studies of violising practices, as well as of de-securitising legal and diplomatic practices.</p>
2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2014 Baltic Journal of Political Sciencehttps://www.journals.vu.lt/BJPS/article/view/429ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE US DE JURE RECOGNITION OF THE BALTIC STATES IN 19222020-02-11T09:03:12+00:00Eero Medijainen
<p>A certain unity among the Baltic states emerged during their simultaneous fights for independence and for recognition by the great powers in Europe and the US. The recognition was given separately to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and not commonly to the Baltic states. This article tries to determine when and under what circumstances the Baltic question reached the institutions and leading persons dealing with foreign relations in the US as a separate problem independent of Russia. After the independence of the Baltic states, there followed a repelling attitude from the US and non-recognition until 1922.</p>
2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2014 Baltic Journal of Political Sciencehttps://www.journals.vu.lt/BJPS/article/view/430EUROPEANIZATION OF THE BALTIC PARLIAMENTS: EXPECTATIONS AND AGENDA FOR FUTURE RESEARCH2020-02-11T09:03:11+00:00Lukas Pukelis
<p>The three Baltic states have joined the European Union almost a decade ago, but as of yet no research has been carried out von how the membership in the EU has affected the national political systems of these countries. This article overviews the literature on how EU membership affects the relationship between legislative and executive branches of government and summarizes what expectations could be drawn as to the character and degree of Europeanization of Baltic parliaments, based on the research. It also calls for an empirical study of this matter to measure these expectations against the reality and gives recommendations how it should be carried out.</p>
2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2014 Baltic Journal of Political Sciencehttps://www.journals.vu.lt/BJPS/article/view/431GREAT POTENTIAL BUT LITTLE IMPACT: THE EUROPEAN UNION’S PROTECTION POLICIES FOR THE BALTIC SEA2020-02-11T09:03:10+00:00Tom Schumacher
<p>Since the completion of the Eastern enlargement in 2004, a major responsibility for addressing the Baltic Sea pollution lies with the European Union. It provides strong institutions to facilitate environmental decision-making and to enforce the implementation of regulations. However, the measures taken so far have not been sufficient to significantly improve the state of the Baltic Sea. In particular, the Common Agricultural Policy does not take the ecological characteristics of the region into consideration. Instead, it provides false incentives since it generally encourages farmers to increase production and to extend areas under cultivation. To enhance the EU’s role, it is crucial to raise the awareness of the Baltic Sea’s vulnerability in Brussels. Moreover, European regulations and policies should become more flexible and match the regional specific environmental requirements. At the same time, too heavy financial burdens and distortions of competition, especially for the region’s agricultural sector, should be avoided.</p>
2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2014 Baltic Journal of Political Sciencehttps://www.journals.vu.lt/BJPS/article/view/432BELARUS: TRANSFORMATION FROM AUTHORITARIANISM TOWARDS SULTANISM2020-02-11T09:03:09+00:00Uladzimir Rouda
<p>The article consists of three parts. Firstly, the author considers the main concepts of the political regime in Belarus. Such an analysis includes the concepts of hybrid, authoritarian, and neo-patrimonial regimes. The second part deals with the reasons for Belarusian retreat from democratic standards, namely the Russian factor in Belarusian politics. President Vladimir Putin and Russian bureaucracy are afraid to lose Belarus in case Aliaksandr Lukashenka is removed from absolute power. The authoritarian regime in Russia has sponsored autocracies in the post-Soviet space, ensuring their dependence on Moscow. In the third part, the author analyses the transformation of the Belarusian regime, using the variables of the role of leadership, the state of pluralism, the role of ideology, the character of political mobilization, and the state of human rights. During a very short period of Lukashenka’s rule, we have witnessed a constant tightening of dictatorship rule, which has led the Belarusian regime to the point of a hybrid authoritarian-sultanistic regime (2006) and almost classical sultanism (2010). Such regimes as Belarusian can only be changed through the mobilization of public protest from below. Besides, the Belarusian semi-sultanism is not sustainable.</p>
2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2014 Baltic Journal of Political Sciencehttps://www.journals.vu.lt/BJPS/article/view/433IS RUSSIA A THREAT TO ESTONIAN ENERGY SECURITY?2020-02-11T09:03:08+00:00Triinu Tarus and Matthew Crandall
<p>This study examines whether Russia is a threat to Estonia’s energy security as well as how Estonia has reacted to Russia as an energy supplier. The authors use Stephen Walt’s balance of threat theory as a framework to understand the potential of Russia as a threat, as well as how Estonia has reacted. The balance of threat theory is chosen because it effectively establishes when states view others as a threat and how they react. The focus of the work is on Estonia’s dependence on Russian natural gas and the great lengths Estonia has gone to be energy self-sufficient. The article concludes that Estonia can and does see Russia as a threat to its energy security and has taken significant measures to reduce its dependency on Russia as an energy supplier.</p>
2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2014 Baltic Journal of Political Sciencehttps://www.journals.vu.lt/BJPS/article/view/2813PARLIAMENTARISM VERSUS SEMI-PRESIDENTIALISM IN THE BALTIC STATES: THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF DIFFERENCES IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORKS2020-02-11T09:03:07+00:00Zenonas Norkus
<p>Restoring their statehood in the early 1990s, Estonia and Latvia established parliamentary republics, while Lithuania opted for semi-presidentialism. The paper is a case-oriented comparative study explaining this difference with the Lithuanian “exceptionality” in focus. Part of the answer is differences of interwar constitutional history: while Lithuania and Estonia had to cope with the legacy of three constitutions each, Latvia inherited only the parliamentary Constitution of 1922, because its dictator Karlis Ulmanis did not bother to constitutionalize his rule. Another part is differences in the balance of power during the time of extraordinary politics when constitutions were made. The alternation between the presidential and parliamentary phases of semi-presidentialism and the “perils of presidentialism” did manifest repeatedly in the Lithuanian post-communist politics, while Estonia and Latvia did know next to nothing about them, except for the “Zatlers episode” in Latvia in 2009–2011.The infamous Rolandas Paksas’ impeachment in 2003–2004 and controversial features in the performance style of the Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė are important illustrations of the shortcomings of semi-presidentialism, which could be cured by Lithuania’s switch to the Baltic pattern of parliamentary presidency. However, as time goes on, the probability of a constitutional reform decreases in all Baltic States, mainly due to increasing acquis constitutionnel and habituation.</p>
2013-01-01T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2014 Baltic Journal of Political Science