| Abstract [eng] |
The implementation of reforms in the political sense can be a smooth and fast process in the presence of universal approval, but it can also be complicated in the presence of resistance from the public. In order to find out what determines the occurrence of changes and how the legitimization of changes is subsequently accessible, researches on the political process are carried out. The final work aims to analyze the political process at the radical points of interrupted equilibrium in the Lithuanian pension policy in the period 2010-2020. Since few studies of the political process have been conducted in Lithuania, the political process of changes in Lithuanian pension policy has not been analyzed, which would show the environment of political decisions, which includes both the perception and actions of policymakers, but also the influence of public discourse on political decision-making. The aim of the thesis research is to analyze the radical changes in Lithuanian pension policy in the period 2010-2020. To achieve the goal, the research tasks set out are to find out the main parameters of the pension system, goals and models of the pension system; examine Mr. Kingdon's political window theory; to examine the punctuated equilibrium model and determine the punctuated equilibrium points of the Lithuanian pension policy in the period 2010-2020; to analyze the environment of political solutions of the radical breakpoints of the Lithuanian pension policy. The object of the research is radical changes in the Lithuanian pension policy for the period 2010-2020. The theoretical part of the final work uses the analysis of the scientific literature to analyse the main parameters and goals of pension systems, theoretical aspects of PAYG and fully funded models. It also includes analysis of Kingdon's theory of the political window, which defines problem flow, policy flow, and politics flow, which help determine the choice of certain decisions in politics. It also includes the punctuated equilibrium model, which helps identify radical change points that interrupt existing policies. The empirical part of the final work uses document analysis and public discourse analysis. The analysis of documents was carried out in order to determine the points of interrupted equilibrium and to find out the peculiarities of the political process. The analysis used laws, legal acts, information provided by official institutions in the public space in the period of 2015-2016 and 2018. Public discourse analysis was used to analyze the statements of interest groups, experts and politicians about the policy changes. Media portals are selected based on GEMIUS 2022. according to the data of the October survey. The data was analyzed by applying qualitative content analysis based on the principle of axial coding by distinguishing categories and subcategories with the MAXQDA 2020 program. After summarizing the results of the research, it was found that the political process of adopting the draft laws was not affected by the public discourse at that time, but the positions of power at that time had a significant influence. |
