Rusijos agresijos atspindžiai 2023 m. savivaldos rinkimuose

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Collection:
Mokslo publikacijos / Scientific publications
Document Type:
Straipsnis / Article
Language:
Lietuvių kalba / Lithuanian
Title:
Rusijos agresijos atspindžiai 2023 m. savivaldos rinkimuose
Alternative Title:
Raflection of Russia's aggresion against Ukraine in the 2023 local authority elections in Lithuania
In the Journal:
Regional formation and development studies. 2024, Nr. 2 (43), p. 97-110
Summary / Abstract:

LTNors tiesioginiai merų rinkimai buvo viena didžiausių pastarojo dešimtmečio Lietuvos politinės sistemos reformų, paskatinusi 2022 m. Lietuvos Respublikos Seimą balsuoti dėl Konstitucijos, tačiau ši tema ir savivaldos rinkimai apskritai kol kas Lietuvos politologų dėmesio sulaukia tik epizodiškai. Tarp negausių politologinių tyrimų savivaldos tematika dar mažiau dėmesio tenka studijoms, nagrinėjančioms kandidatų į merus bei savivaldybių tarybas programas. Šio straipsnio tikslas yra iš dalies užpildyti žiojinčią spragą, analizuojant vieno didžiausių pastarojo meto įvykių – Rusijos agresijos Ukrainoje atspindžius 2023 m. merų bei savivaldybių tarybų rinkimuose. Siekiant šio tikslo išnagrinėti visose 60 Lietuvos savivaldybių vykę merų ir savivaldybių tarybų narių rinkimai. Taikant kiekybinę turinio analizę išanalizuotos visų kandidatų į merus ir savivaldybių VRK skelbiamos rinkiminės programos. Surinkti empiriniai duomenys leido politines organizacijas bei vyravusias temas skirstyti į blokus. Atlikta analizė atskleidė, kad, nepaisant didelio visuomenės susidomėjimo Rusijos agresija Ukrainoje bei savivaldybių pareigos rūpintis civiline sauga, daugelyje iš nagrinėtų savivaldybių ši tema liko išvis neminėta. Be to, didesnis dėmesys saugumo klausimams nepadėjo politikams laimėti rinkimų. Galiausiai didesniu aktyvumu komunikuojant apie saugumą pasižymėjo tos politinės organizacijos, kurių nacionaliniu lygmeniu dažniausiai nesame linkę sieti su saugumo tematika. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: Rusija, Ukraina, grėsmė, meras, savivaldybės taryba, kandidatas, rinkimai, partija. [Iš leidinio]

ENEven though direct elections of mayors have been one of the biggest changes in the political system of Lithuania, this reform and the local authority elections has remained terra incognita for Lithuanian political scientists. We have a very small number of studies that analyse political life at a local authority level. Moreover, there are no studies focused on the election programmes of candidates who seek to be elected as mayors or council members. Besides, the geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe changed dramatically after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These dramatic changes are extremely important to residents of Lithuania, who live near an aggressive state. The situation has been revealed by Eurobarometer polls and Google Trends statistical analyses. The importance of geopolitical threats requires united efforts to deal with the new geopolitical challenges. To some extent, local level leaders should also take on a role in this process. This responsibility is related to local government law, which claims that local authorities are responsible for civil security initiatives. The Economic Theory of Democracy claims that politicians will offer policy initiatives that were asked for by voters. Therefore, it is useful to analyse how the geopolitical risks were represented in political programmes by local politicians. To do this, I focused on four main tasks: first, to identify what kind of topics were mentioned in the political programmes of local politicians, second, to identify how different communication was on the security topics by local authorities, third, to evaluate how different communication was among different political groups, and, fourth, to evaluate how intense communication on security issues affected candidates’ chances of being elected. I achieved these goals after careful analyses of 60 local authorities with the help of the quantative content analysis method.The careful analysis of all the candidates’ political programmes, which were published by the Election Commission of Lithuania, demonstrated unexpected results. First, the main statements which were found in political programmes varied from a simple mention of the current political situation, which was most common among TS-LKD candidates, to very specific statements and initiatives. For instance, the LVŽS talked about the need for coordinating the actions of Nato air police and local authorities. Second, there was no mention of security aspects in 25 out of 60 local authorities. Examples of this are the Mažeikiai district local authority and the Švenčionys district local authority. Moreover, only in 18 local authorities were security questions mentioned more than twice. Third, despite the fact that the TS-LKD is the most active promoter of security topics at a national level, at a local level the party was less active than the LS, LRP and LSDP parties. Finally, those politicians who focused on security questions were not so successful in elections. A total of 27 candidates to positions of mayor and 26 lists of candidates to the council failed to get through to the second round of elections, while only nine candidates for the position of mayor and seven lists of candidates to the council did. Those candidates who were successful were mayors who sought reelection as parliamentarians who were elected to the parliament by the citizens of that local authority. Keywords: Russia, Ukraine, threat, mayor, local authority council, candidate, elections, party. [From the publication]

DOI:
10.15181/rfds.v42i1.2615
ISSN:
2029-9370; 2351-6542
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Permalink:
https://www.lituanistika.lt/content/111064
Updated:
2024-10-29 18:15:28
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