The 2004 General Election And Left–Right Change In Lithuania
The 2004 General Election And Left–Right Change In Lithuania

Summary/Abstract: The parliamentary election of 2004 was the second “earthquake” shock for the Lithuanian party system after 2000. The number of parties and voter volatility increased. Distrust in older parties, issue divides of centre-periphery, better-off-socially disadvantaged, urban-rural, religious, anti-Russian, and transitional relevance of personalities in politics and miscommunication between politicians, experts and voters on the Left-Right dimension provide account for the unstable electoral preferences and fluidity of the party system. Recent studies reveal diminishing importance of the Left-Right dimension in Lithuania. However, this article considers the Left-Right dimension of political conflict as “empty boxes”, which are filled in with most important political problematique. Therefore political conflict always exists, but its contents might change from country to country. The study analyses expert opinions of the Left-Right dimension in Lithuania in 2004 and concludes that political analysts identify withering of old Communist-Anticommunist cleavage and hold social and economic issues as the most important for the Left-Right dimension in Lithuania. According to experts, parties line up along the Labour-Capital cleavage.

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