Abstract

Title: A Western Democracy? A case study about the development and quality of democracy in Klaipėda  rural municipality in Lithuania.

Author: Ieva Barkauskaitė

Supervisor: Gunnar Hansson

Examinator: Per Strömblad

Educational program: International Politics Studies, Linnaeus University

Last updated: 2012 06 01

The third wave of democratization saw an increased number of countries turning westward. Lithuania was one of these countries that begun their process of democratization. Today the country is based on the social order of democratic values and there is no doubt that the democracy is working. Lithuania has a freedom of expression, free and fair elections and a universal right to stand in them. Unfortunately, this does not mean that the quality of democracy in the country have reached its peak.

In the following pages I will present the development of democracy in the post-Soviet Lithuanian municipality – Klaipėda rural municipality. This essay focuses on the past 22 years from Lithuania’s declaration of independence in 1990 until today. However, for the sake of a greater understanding of the changes that have occurred in the municipality, I will in some cases describe how it was during the Soviet period.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the development of democracy and the current quality of democracy in this municipality. That will be achieved by defining the concepts of municipality and democracy, its types in addition to democracy existence criteria and by analyzing the municipality’s political culture as well as citizen rights and freedoms.

A disciplined configurative case study approach will be used for the purpose of this examination where I will use the existing theories to explain the selected case. In order to understand how far Klaipėda municipality’s development and quality of the democracy have come I will focus mainly on Robert Alan Dahl’s analytical framework for democracy and polyarchy. Wolfgang Merkel’s “embedded” and “defective” types of democracy will also be used. The material covered is wide, ranging from interviews with citizens and politicians to observations from a demonstration and a meeting where the Lithuanian prime minister attended. 

The results and conclusion I can draw from this study is that Klaipėda municipality is a fully democratic society. However, there are several limitations in my work, such as those of an economical nature, and there needs to be more studies to qualify this suggestion.

Key words: Klaipėda rural municipality (in Lithuania), democracy, quality of democracy, types of democracy, criteria of democracy, Wolfgang Merkel, Robert Alan Dahl, Soviet Union.