| Title |
Lietuvos politinė raida: antrojo pokomunistinio dešimtmečio lyginamoji analizė / |
| Translation of Title |
Political Development of Lithuania: a Comparative Analysis of Second Post-communist Decade. |
| Authors |
Norkus, Zenonas |
| DOI |
10.15388/Polit.2011.4.8259 |
| Full Text |
|
| Is Part of |
Politologija / Vilniaus universitetas.. Vilnius : Vilniaus universiteto leidykla. 2011, nr. 4, p. 3-38.. ISSN 1392-1681 |
| Abstract [eng] |
Fidesz leader Victor Orban used the two thirds majority in the Hungarian parliament to promulgate a new constitution. Lithuania is unique in that the ex-communist and anti-communist elite pact was not abolished, but preserved and consolidated due to the collaboration of all, by this time, “established” and Left- of-centre populist parties during the impeachment proceedings. The impeachment of Paksas can be considered as the stress test of the young Lithuanian liberal democracy, just on the eve of the accession of Lithuania to the EU and NATO. An unhappy peculiarity of the stress tests is that they sometimes break or damage the items tested. As far as the success in impeaching R.Paksas prevented the transformation of liberal post-communism into populist post-communism in Lithuania, the test was a success. However, against the expectation of many observers of impeachment events, it did not enhance the quality of democracy of Lithuania. The legacy of impeachment are disequilibrium of the balance of power between government branches in favour of the Constitutional Court, strengthening of the Left-of-Centre populist political forces and the interference of secret services into Lithuanian politics with the self-assumed mission to safeguard Lithuanian democracy from the perils of populism. |
| Published |
Vilnius : Vilniaus universiteto leidykla |
| Type |
Journal article |
| Language |
Lithuanian |
| Publication date |
2011 |
| CC license |
|
