Gerovë Ir Parama Demokratijai Lietuvoje
Welfare And Support For Democracy In Lithuania

Summary/Abstract: The article explores the effect of personal economic conditions and economic evaluations on the support for political regime. First, the relationship between different economic indicators and the support for democracy is examined using public opinion survey data. Further, the qualitative data are used to analyze the impact of socio-economic status on the regime support of an individual. Finally, the article explores how the evaluations of the national economic situation are formed. The qualitative research was carried out in July 2004 in four Lithuanian districts: Vilnius, Joniðkis, Klaipëda and Tauragë. Vilnius and Klaipëda were selected as the most prosperous regions, and Joniðkis and Tauragë were selected as the poorest regions of Lithuania. During the research, 40 in-depth interviews were made. The respondents were selected using the criteria of age, education and profession. The quantitative data are drawn from the 2001 Baltic Barometer survey. The results of the research reveal that support for democracy is mostly influenced by the evaluation of the national economic situation. The dissatisfaction with the economic performance of the political system, however, is only weakly related with the personal economic situation of an individual. Deprivation appears to be the strongest objective economic factor of political support. The other factors influencing the formation of the negative assessment of the economic development of Lithuania includes the economic situation of the region and neighborhood and the opinion of experts. The decisive criterion conditioning the attitudes toward the current economic situation in Lithuania is the comparison of the current life quality with that of Soviet times.

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