Democratic Values in Post-Accession Lithuania

Project leader

Ausra Padskocimaite

Project period

2013 June – 2013 July 

Project description

The aim of the project was to study whether democratic values such as respect for human rights and tolerance promoted by the European Union during the pre-accession period took root in Lithuania. In order to join the European Union candidate countries had to meet the so-called Copenhagen criteria (respect for rule of law and human rights, democratic state of governance, functioning market economy) that led to numerous legislative and administrative changes in the field of human rights. However, it seemed that the formal institutional framework had changed much faster than people’s attitudes and beliefs. The first part of the project was based on interviews with representatives from different human rights NGOs in Lithuania. During the second part, a representative population survey was carried out to uncover people’s ideas about human rights and tolerance of unpopular groups. The results of the survey could provide interesting insights about meaningful differences between different age groups (younger generation is expected to be more tolerant), people with different educational background, religion etc.

Funding

Swedish Institute