Lietuvių Krikščionių demokratų požiūris į demokratiją XX a. ketvirtajame dešimtmetyje
The Attitude of Christian Democrats Towards Democracy in the 4th Decade of the 20th Century

Summary/Abstract: Lithuanian Christian Democrats in the interwar Lithuania had a very clear understanding of democracy. It was based on the ideas of Christianity and ideas of Thomism philosophy. This philosophic conception was basic for their ideology. The most important thing here was Christian values and morality. They criticized ideas of liberalism because of its attitude towards human life. The main reasons for the criticism were devaluation of moral values and infinite freedom. According to some publicists, freedom must be based on responsibility and social morality. These fundamental blocs were evaluated as the basis for real Christian democracy that had to be realized in Lithuania. Christian Democrats were emphasizing economic democracy too, and they clarified their understanding of economic freedom and its purposes. The most important one was the prosperity of the Lithuanian society which could not be reached without Christian values that were represented in state economy too. At the same time Christian Democrats tried to show the main political problems that were evaluated as obstacles trying to reach real democracy. One of the most important problems was elections to the Lithuanian parliament and to local self-governmental institutions. According to Christian Democrats, without fair elections it was impossible to build democratic and stable state that could show resistance to inner and outer political problems. In other words, without democracy it is impossible to guarantee real safety for the state and its people. Christian Democrats thought that Tautininkai (the party of Lithuanian nationalists that was a ruling party in Lithuania after 1926 coup d’état) were attempting to implement the ideas of fascism in Lithuania. The main slogan of Tautininkai was: “one leader, one nation, one party”. Such attitude was strongly criticized at the beginning of 1930’s. Later, such criticism became almost impossible because of censorship, but some publicists tried to continue with it. One of them was S. Šalkauskis. He was always critical of Smetona’s regime and its policy. He associated the latter’s political group with “people of dead soul” that must be overcome by “people with vital Christian soul”. Such critical ideas were published even in 1938 when Tautininkai approved of the new authoritarian constitution. At the same time Christian Democrats in their press tried to point out other political problems of Smetona’s authoritarian regime. This political regime was closely associated with the main political problems in Lithuania during 1930’s, such as breach of privilege, civil inactivity, censorship, unlimited power of bureaucracy, incompetence. According to the publicists, these problems caused all Lithuania’s political disasters that led Lithuania to the loss of its independence in 1940.

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