The role of populist parties in the geopolitical discourse in Lithuania
| dc.contributor.advisor | Pääbo, Heiko, juhendaja | |
| dc.contributor.author | Tölgyesi, Beatrix | |
| dc.contributor.other | Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond | et |
| dc.contributor.other | Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut | et |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2016-09-30T09:42:02Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2016-09-30T09:42:02Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2016 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This thesis examines the geopolitical position of two non-mainstream, populist Lithuanian parties, Labour Party and Order and Justice, in several parliamentary debates dealing with geopolitically important issues. The study is based on electoral cleavage theory with the pro-soviet/anti-soviet cleavage identified as the main cleavage in Lithuania that partly overlaps with the winners/losers of transition and urban/rural cleavages. In the frame of quantitative and qualitative content analysis, several analytical categories are introduced, including topics, ideas and tactics used by the representatives of the parties. The analysis showed that Labour Party hardly displays any characteristics that would qualify them as strikingly pro-Russian, populist or a combination of these two, perhaps due to its ongoing transformation into a mainstream party. In the case of Order and Justice, what differentiates them from other Lithuanian parties and makes it interesting from the point of view of the research are the ideas that can be recognized from their rhetoric: these partly show resemblance with the official rhetoric of the Kremlin and partly mirror common notions about Russia. Populism in the case of these parties seems to mean rather identifying with the mind-set of a significant part of the population. As for the role of the two parties in the geopolitical discourse, the study concludes that they represent a voice in geopolitical matters that is to some extent different from the rhetoric of the mainstream parties, but they are not consequent enough, do not have a coherent set of ideas and lack a firm stance based on it. Their behaviour in geopolitical debates is rather opportunistic. Although they use some ideas that may originate from the Kremlin (‘double standards’, ‘depicting the EU and NATO as colonizers’) there is no sufficient evidence to state that they act as agents of Russia. The parties’ relative passivity and moderation in these debates can be explained by their lack of interest in geopolitical issues and general ideological emptiness pointed out by analysts as well as their possible fear of ostracism in case of harshly contradicting the mainstream geopolitical discourse and their presence in the government during most of the debates. Keywords: Lithuania, Russia, geopolitics, populism, cleavages, parliamentary rhetoric | en |
| dc.description.uri | http://www.ester.ee/record=b4614518*est | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10062/53958 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | en |
| dc.publisher | Tartu Ülikool | et |
| dc.subject.other | magistritööd | et |
| dc.subject.other | geopoliitika | et |
| dc.subject.other | parteid | et |
| dc.subject.other | populism | et |
| dc.subject.other | Leedu | et |
| dc.subject.other | Venemaa | et |
| dc.title | The role of populist parties in the geopolitical discourse in Lithuania | en |
| dc.type | Thesis | en |