Tautinių mažumų dalyvavimas Lietuvos elektoraliniuose procesuose

LTStraipsnyje aptariami Vakarų politologijos moksle sukurti elektoralinio elgesio modeliai ir jų taikymas pokomunistiniuose valstybėse. Pagrindinis dėmesys skiriamas Lietuvoje gyvenančių tautinių mažumų grupių rinkiminiam elgesiui išnagrinėti. Bandoma išsiaiškinti, kokios priežastys lemia pasyvią Lietuvos etninių grupių rinkiminę elgseną, koks yra pagrindinių rusų ir lenkų mažumų partinės identifikacijos laipsnis bei politinių preferencijų lygmuo. [Iš leidinio]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Elektoralinis elgesys; Mažumų integracija; Partinė identifikacija; Rinkiminiai modeliai; Tautinės mažumos; Electoral behavior; Electoral models; Integration of minorities; Minorities integration; National minorities; Party identification.

ENThe collapse of communist regimes and the start of new democratization processes in the region of East and Central Europe highlighted a new political behavior of its citizens. It came out that Western electoral methodological approaches could be applied only partly in region's countries, because of different citizenship traditions, uneven economic development, and different social structure of society. The only one possibility is to apply the synthesis of theoretical models. Juridical regulation of the status of national minorities has centenarian traditions in Lithuania. All of it was positively used in creating the effective system defending national minorities' civil and political rights after restoring the independence in 1990th. Due to favorable laws there were formed quite effective conditions for integrating national minorities into state's political life and forming ethnical political and non-governmental organizations. The first elections of parliament (Seimas) in independent Lithuania have showed that national minorities' representatives take part in electoral processes more passively than native Lithuanians. Such an electoral behavior of quite big part of national minorities was sealed because of their negative attitude towards the processes of transformations in Lithuania, because of their communistic past, features of demographic and social development as well. The negative influence for electoral behavior of national minorities had the mixed model of electoral system. In 1992 Seimas legalized the principle of positive discrimination in the election law, which formed some privileges for the representatives of national minorities' participating in the elections.However in 1996 the privileges participating in the elections for national minorities was cancelled. The biggest Lithuanian national minorities are Russians and Poles. Both minorities have quite different electoral behavior. Russians are more active in the processes of federal elections, while Poles are more active in the elections of local - self-government. Different attitude of both minorities towards elections is conditioned by different their posture towards Lithuanian state. Russians have more incorporate and Poles have more segregate posture towards Lithuanian state. The ethnical identity of Russians and Poles encouraged partial identification of national groups as well. From 1992 there were formed Russian and polish political parties, which try to express and represent economic and political interests of their ethnical community. Moreover, Lithuanian Russians and poles more and more actively join in the biggest political parties, or vote for their candidates understanding that local policy is quite limited. Lithuanian national minorities traditionally are respected as left parties' electorate. But such a position is still unclear. Most probably such a position is conditioned by old soviet mentality, by twisted understanding of state's government functions, by lower living standards. Inadequate social identification and psychological stratification influence the options of national minorities as well. [Text from author]