The Impact of in internet penetration on political participation activity in Lithuania

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LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Politinis dalyvavimas; Rinkėjų aktyvumas; Rinkimai; Political participation; Internet penetration; Activeness of voters; Election.

ENActive political participation in the process of democratic governance provides citizens with an opportunity to influence elections and control the work of politicians. However, results of the surveys during last few years display that the activity of citizens` political participation in elections is declining significantly. As a result, new ways to encourage activity of citizens are looked for while taking into account the rapidly changing environment. One of such possibilities is rapid development of information and communication methods which allow citizens’ participation via internet and proper information gain in networks. The aim of the article is to identify the impact of internet penetration on political participation activity in Lithuania. The authors analysed tendencies of internet penetration and activity of citizens` participation in election. Furthermore, causal relations between political participation in elections which happened from 2007 to 2014 and factors of internet penetration (households with internet access and individuals, who used internet daily or at least once per week) were analyzed in this article. According to this study the authors found a relation between activity of voters in the before mentioned elections and factors of internet penetration. There were not identified statistically significant differences between counties where the most part of the population are from rural areas and those, where prevailed urban population. The regular usage of internet has impact on voters` activity in the rarest settled counties. It was identified that individuals who use the internet more frequently find information about elections in websites. The hypothesis was raised that this information encourages them to participate in elections more actively. [From the publication]