Pork barrel and identity politics: explaining a minority party's electoral success in Lithuania

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Collection:
Mokslo publikacijos / Scientific publications
Document Type:
Straipsnis / Article
Language:
Anglų kalba / English
Title:
Pork barrel and identity politics: explaining a minority party's electoral success in Lithuania
Authors:
In the Journal:
Nationalities papers. 2024, p. 1-20
Subject Category:
LT
Etninės grupės / Ethnic groups; Politinės partijos / Political parties; Politika / Politics.
Summary / Abstract:

ENOur article describes the lifecycle of Lithuania’s Electoral Action of Poles–Christian Families Alliance (LLRA-KŠS) party that has been a part of country’s political landscape for near 30 years. Despite its seemingly ethnic program, the party has a poor track record for delivering on its electoral promises. Yet, it has been continuously supported by the majority of Polish-speakers in Lithuania. The background of the nationalizing state, which encourages the party elites to conflate substantive representation with the signposting of ethnic identity in party politics, offers one of the reasons for the LLRA-KŠS’s electoral success. Although the party effectively consolidated its regional electorate, it came to control service delivery to their ethnic constituency by engaging in pork barrel politics. Poor performance in recent national and municipal elections put this strategy to bond with its voters into question, casting doubt on the LLRA-KŠS’s ability to survive as an ethnic party in the long term. Keywords: nation-building; minority representation; Lithuania; Poles. [From the publication]

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/nps.2024.60
ISSN:
0090-5992; 1465-3923
Subject:
Related Publications:
Permalink:
https://www.lituanistika.lt/content/113457
Updated:
2025-02-24 16:09:42
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