NGO's role in the democratic, decision-making: an empirical overview of the Lithuanian case

• Latvijos universiteto talpykla: leidinio tekstas

ENNGOs are considered valuable for democracy mainly because they can make public governance more effective, better monitored and reflective of citizens’ priorities. However, NGOs’ inclusion in the public-policy making may not necessarily improve civil society representation and democracy. Thus the author is interested in the role NGOs play in the democratic decision-making and therefore empirically overviews the Lithuanian case in her analysis how the structure of the NGO sector affects the role NGOs play in democracy. Covering the period from the end of XX century until today, the author maps mushrooming Lithuanian NGO sector characterized by the low citizen engagement, sector’s reliance on foreign donor funding and with largely undiversified income, therefore detached from the citizens and hardly representative of the citizens in the democratic decision making. Keywords: non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Lithuania, civil society, public policy. [From the publication]