| Abstract [eng] |
In this master thesis, regarding the recently in the Lithuania observed lack of citizens interest in politics and trust in the elected representatives, the hypothesis is held, that the Lithuanians voters decide to go to the pools on the basis of expressive motivations (the expressive motivations to go to vote in this theses are defined as the motivations, when citizen decide to go to the pools first of all because the very act of the voting has a value to him, not because he expect the concrete benefit from the election results, when the winning party or candidate will implement their policy). To examine this is the objective of this thesis. First of all the existing theories on the citizens’ turnout motivations are reviewed, analyzed and classified, then the feasible model of the citizens motivation to vote are constructed on the basis of the extended rational choice theory. The main distinction is made between the instrumental and expressive voters turnout motivations. Thought in this thesis it is not aimed to evaluate the expressive motivations normatively, the possible sequences of the voting, when the turnout is conditioned by this kind of reasons, is objectively discussed. The conclusion is made that the broader outcomes of the expressive motivations highly depends on the specific kind of motivation from this group, but generally, one could state, that expressive motivations (certain kinds of them) can damage democratic quality, but definitely helps to sustain this kind of political regime. For the further analysis along the constructed turnout motivations model, the block of the survey questions was designed. The representative population survey was held in the end of March – beginning of the April of 2008 and the data provided by it is used in the succeeding research. Eight possible turnout motivations are defined: two instrumental (going to vote first of all because of the intension to elect the representatives of the voters interest, and the intension through the results of the election to resolve the topical issue voter cares about) ant six expressive motivations (going to vote because of the sense of civic duty, loyalty to the preferred political party or candidate, desire just to express one’s will in the state ruling processes, solidarity to other members of one’s social environment, pleasure to socialize with other community members during the voting process and going to the pools just for entertaining). In order to separate these two highly related motivation groups, the cleavage is incorporated and the concrete conditions which have to be fulfilled during the survey data’s analysis in order to claim the prime existence of one or another motivation are defined. As expected, the existence of the expressive turnout motivations among Lithuanian voters is confirmed. Among them the most common, most popular motivations are going to the pools because of the desire to express the loyalty and support for the preferred political party or candidate (even if it is not expected that they can win), to express one’s will in the state governing process, and going to the pools just because of the sense of duty. The more popular instrumental motivation, as it is found, is going to vote because of the desire to elect ones representative, but the most often both of the instrumental motivations are reported. Making the comparison, with some precaution one could say that the expressive motivations of turnout are even more often than the instrumental among Lithuanian voters. |
