The Diamond Open Access peer-reviewed scholarly journal Parliamentary Studies was established in 2004 and is published by the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. Its purpose is to encourage studies in the fields of democratic governance, parliamentarism and political culture. The journal gathers political analysts, historians, sociologists, researchers in linguistics and law as well as authors within the discipline of political communication.
Lietuvos nacionalinė Martyno Mažvydo biblioteka
Copyright (c) 2026 Parliamentary Studies, 2026, Nr. 37 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Copyright (c) 2026 Parliamentary Studies, 2026, No. 37 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Regaining Courage According to Arvydas Juozaitis: Remembering the Beginnings of the Lithuanian Reform Movement
The book “Tikra Sąjūdžio istorija” (The True History of Sąjūdis; Vilnius: Obuolys [i.e., Lectio Divina], 2025) by Arvydas Juozaitis is one of the most significant contributions to the history of Lithuania’s restoration of independence in recent years. The work is a personal memoir, a political chronicle, and a philosophical meditation in one. The chosen form of memoir and the polemical nature of the book reflect the author’s conviction that the events of 1988–1991 cannot be fully captured solely through the conventional tools of academic history, initiated by Bronius Genzelis and further developed by Česlovas Laurinavičius and Vladas Sirutavičius. However, remaining true to his style and perspective, Juozaitis in many cases leaves the research that has been carried out in the margins. Drawing on sources from that period, the author carefully examines the most significant events. The value of the book is enhanced by personal observations about individuals who were so important in the creation of Sąjūdis but who later faded into obscurity. Juozaitis’s insights and discursive comments reinforce the value of the memoirs, but most importantly, they reveal how the author, being at the epicenter of events, witnessed and assessed them. All of this adds to the relevance of the book as a narrative from within Sąjūdis, written by a witness and one of its founders.
Copyright (c) 2026 Alfonsas Eidintas https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A Mosaic of Resistance: Visual and Textual Testimony of the War in Ukraine
Lithuania’s public sphere and cultural landscape has changed noticeably as early as 2014. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, i.e., the annexation of Crimea and initiation of a military conflict in eastern Ukraine, has made the threat of war in the region palpable for Lithuania as well. The rise in anxiety prompted more vocal discussions about defense, questions of civil security, and search for historical parallels. In 2022, as Russia escalated the war into a full-scale invasion, this previously experienced threat was felt as something directly affecting Lithuania’s everyday political, cultural as well as people’s personal life. The number of publications on the war has increased, as has the number of books, studies, testimonies, and analyses about Ukraine being translated into Lithuanian. The war became not only a subject of study but also a testimony to a living and still-evolving experience. This dynamic demonstrated that the public values not only factual information but also the opportunity to better understand the processes of war, their historical continuity, and their impact on society. The publishers of the book Ukraine 2022. Resistance note that the book is dedicated to other countries so that they could learn from the Ukrainian experience. They hope that literature could serve as a bridge to convey this experience and strengthen solidarity.
Copyright (c) 2026 Anastasija Chafizova https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Memories of a Resolution and the Beginning of a New Path
Copyright (c) 2026 Arvydas Pocius https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In Search for Hannah Arendt‘s Miracle in the Political and Natural Liberty of Arvydas Šliogeris
The article analyzes two conceptions of freedom, the political and the anti-political, in the philosophy of Arvydas Šliogeris. The author of the article argues that even the anti-political freedom of self-sufficiency ultimately unfolds within a political condition. The paper highlights the distinction between Šliogeris’s political philosophy and his philosophy of Being, emphasizing the contrast between the philosopher’s ideal of pure Being in a pre-linguistic reality and the linkage of freedom with property within the political condition. Šliogeris’s conceptions of freedom are presented in a broader theoretical context comparing them with the notions of freedom developed by Isaiah Berlin and Hannah Arendt. In addition, Šliogeris’s understanding of political freedom as embedded in the political condition as well as his conception of natural arbitrariness is compared with the corresponding notions found in the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Hobbes. The article also presents selected examples of Šliogeris’s photographs as symbolic representations of his philosophical ideas of ontological meditation.
Copyright (c) 2026 Tomas Kavaliauskas https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Critique of the definition of “media release” in the Law on Public Information of the Republic of Lithuania
On 15 October 2024, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania adopted a new definition of “media release”, which does not correspond to the paradigm used in communication science. The article analyses the main features of press releases identified in scientific works and assesses which of them are not properly reflected in the law, and predicts what consequences this may lead to in the application of the new norms of the law.
Copyright (c) 2026 Liutauras Ulevičius https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Threat of Absenteeism to Democracy: The Lithuanian Case of the Nation’s Quantitatively Weak Political Mandate
The article examines the prospects for applying quantitatively weak political mandate terminology to explain the problems of current democratic politics. The author of the article argues that a weak political mandate is one of the main reasons for inadequate governance of a democratic state. The article analyses the data of (non) participation in the Seimas elections of the Republic of Lithuania in 2016, 2020 and 2024. After examining the formal (non)support of the voters, who participated in the elections and voted for the winning politician, and taking into accountthe number of all voters included in the electoral roll, the author poses a question: Do Lithuanian politicians, who secure low public support in the Seimas elections, rightly call themselves the representatives of the nation? Assuming that when a politician, who wins the elections in a single-member constituency, is usually formally supported by only 20–25% or even less of the voters registered in the electoral roll, and in a multi-member constituency 3–12%, such a representative is a priori distrusted by a large part of the society, i.e., those who did not support them, or did not participate in the elections. The indifferent attitude towards voters who do not participate in the elections is criticised, based on the provision that if a part of society does not participate in politics, it does not mean that it does not-consume and evaluate politics. More generally, the article focuses on the negative impact of absenteeism on representative democracy as the main form of democracy today. In addition, it also tries to answer how a quantitatively weak political mandate could be (still) made stronger.
Copyright (c) 2026 Vaidutis Laurėnas https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Stalinist Political Electoral Theater (I). Between Ideology and Practice: The First post-war Lithuanian Elections in 1946
Based on extensive archival material, the article discusses the first post-war elections in Lithuania to the Supreme Soviet of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (SS USSR), which took place in 1946. The term political electoral theater is used to describe the interaction between the most important participants in the electoral process; during the Stalin era—between the Communist Party and the titular nation. The author of the article assumes that the main goal of the elections was not the legitimization of political power, but the Sovietization of the Lithuanian people; therefore, the Communist Party tried to involve as many people as possible in the electoral process. Mikhail Suslov, Chair of the Central Committee Bureau for Lithuanian Affairs formulated this goal for the election organizers, the leadership of the Communist Party of Lithuania. The election organizers had to achieve “universal voter participation.” The election campaign had to “rally the broadest masses of the population around the Communist Party and Soviet power,” while the party organizations—to turn the elections into a “national holiday” so that every voter would “feel part of the great Soviet people.” In addition, the Communist and non-party bloc had to achieve an “impressive victory” and elect the “best representatives.” Such was to be the official Stalinist political election theater. The article examines how the Soviet authorities in Lithuania fared in achieving those goals.
Copyright (c) 2026 Vladas Sirutavičius https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A Neoclassical Realist Approach to the Recent Historiography on the Origins of the First World War
Interpretations of the origins of the First World War have undergone substantial revision, yet their integration into international relations theories remains insufficient. This paper examines recent historiography through variables identified in neoclassical realism, namely the systemic and intervening variables. The systemic dimension considers European diplomatic dynamics between 1904 and 1914, while the intervening level focuses on decision-makers’ actions during the July Crisis of 1914. It argues that neoclassical realism and recent research allow the causes of the Great War to be summarised in two aspects: first, a confusing system that sent unclear signals and constrained actors, made it extremely difficult for leaders to manage the post-Sarajevo crisis; second, the mistakes of July Crisis decision-makers—their lack of foresight, faulty assumptions, and the accidents and mishaps that emerged—ultimately caused the war of 1914.
Copyright (c) 2026 Teodoras Žukas https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Copyright (c) 2026 Parlamento studijos, 2026, Nr. 37 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Parlamento studijos, 2025, Nr. 36 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The annexation of the Klaipėda region to Lithuania – a closer look
In a collection of documents dedicated to the anniversary of Klaipėda’s annexation to Lithuania in 1923, researchers from Klaipėda University and the Museum of the History of Lithuania Minor focused on the history of this event, which unfolded not only in Klaipėda and Kaunas, but also in major European capitals. They carefully selected various sources not only from Lithuania, but also from France, Poland, Soviet and American press, not only political but also military documents, and the memories of witnesses to the events. The editors have prepared not only an academic publication of sources, but also a coherent, intense, multi-voiced narrative. The book helps to understand the abundance of events, to see the clash of international interests and the complexity of Lithuania’s situation – the urgent resolution of the dilemma of Klaipėda’s political future opened the door to new international dilemmas. Now that we know how they ended, thanks to the editors, we can still read this book as a compelling political thriller.
Copyright (c) 2025 Vilma Bukaitė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Archival Treasures Concerning a Region That Was a Subject of Great Illusions in Lithuania
The collection of documents, The Klaipėda Issue in Lithuanian Foreign Policy in 1919–1940, compiled and edited by Algimantas Kasparavičius, presents the Lithuanian state’s viewpoint, stance, and policy on the Klaipėda Region in a broad geopolitical context, extending the chronological boundaries of the subject (1923– 1939) that have prevailed until now. The initial chronological reference point is 1919, because by 1922 Lithuania had prepared the diplomatic and political ground for the annexation of the Klaipėda Region. The chronological end date of June 15, 1940 is based on Lithuania’s steady interest in the Klaipėda issue even after the loss of the region on March 22, 1939. The majority of the documents reveal the relations between Lithuania and Germany and communication with the signatory states of the Klaipėda Convention, Poland, and other states (Latvia, Estonia, Soviet Russia (after the end of 1922, the Soviet Union), Czechoslovakia, Finland, the United States of America, Turkey, Brazil, the Holy See, etc.). The collection contains almost 800 documents from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Fund No. 383 and the Lithuanian Legation in London Fund No. 648 housed at the Lithuanian Central State Archives. The sources have been prepared in accordance with the principles of the science of historical sources.
Copyright (c) 2025 Silva Pocytė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Becoming Free: Flashes of June-July 1988
Copyright (c) 2025 Arvydas Juozaitis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Role of the Parliamentary Library in the Context of Changing Strategic Paradigm in the Ecosystem of the Future
The article explores the strategic role of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania (LNB) in the context of global transformations It examines the need to develop the Library as a parliamentary institution in the light of changing geopolitical and geo-economic conditions and discusses deficiencies in the national information supply system and their impact on the quality of public policy decisions. The article also addresses the methodological basis of the „Lithuania 2050” Strategy, the logic of the changing strategic paradigm and the role of the humanities and social sciences in shaping the national narrative and cutural identity in the future context. It discusses the paradigm shift in librarianship, the importance of information resource sovereignty, the impact of semantic paradigms, development of cultural economics, and the functions of the Strategic Foresight Division. The study emphasizes the importance of library’s integration into Lithuania’s future ecosystem
Copyright (c) 2025 Arūnas Augustinaitis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Stopping the Flood: The Application of the Cordon Sanitaire Strategy in the Lithuanian Political System
The article examines the cordon sanitaire strategy, used by mainstream political actors to isolate anti-system parties. Cordon sanitaire is a term commonly encountered in political science, but in the case of Lithuania, it is not sufficiently understood. This became particularly evident during the most recent Lithuanian parliamentary elections, when a debate emerged regarding the possible application of the cordon sanitaire strategy toward the political party “Nemuno aušra” (Dawn of the Nemunas). This article aims to conceptualize the operational mechanism of the cordon sanitaire strategy and, based on empirical data, answer the following questions: is it possible to apply the cordon sanitaire strategy in the Lithuanian political system? Why was the idea of applying this strategy not implemented during the last parliamentary elections, even though it was proposed?
Copyright (c) 2025 Andrius Vyšniauskas https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Evolution of Political Party Systems in Post-communist Societies from the Perspective of Strategic Analysis
The article is devoted to the evolution of party systems and coalition politics in Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe. The main features of institutional and constitutional design are highlighted as the necessary conditions for the democratic development of post-communist party systems. In Lithuanian political party system, a political institutions as a mediator of the relations between the state and society play an important role.
Copyright (c) 2025 Kęstutis Šerpetis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The article discusses the situation of contemporary narratives of Lithuanian history. Two paradigms of narratives are discussed. The concept of nation determines the difference between the two of them. According to one paradigm, the nation is seen as an ethnographic-ethnopolitical community, based on which an attempt is made to connect the development of Lithuanian history from ancient times to the present. Meanwhile another narrative claims that the nation is granted political-civilizational content, in which the ethnic origin plays no significant role in the development of history. The article criticizes the “weak points” of both narratives and proposes to look for clear criteria for national identification.
Copyright (c) 2025 Česlovas Laurinavičius https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The 1905 Russian Revolution and the Vilniaus Žinios Phenomenon
A key moment in the development of the Lithuanian national movement was the Lithuanian Assembly held in Vilnius on December 4–5, 1905, commonly referred to in historiography as the Great Seimas of Vilnius. The participants adopted a series of political and national resolutions that articulated the essential aspirations of the Lithuanian nation. These resolutions also outlined core legal and state-related demands, expressing – often in concise and programmatic form – the call for Lithuania’s political autonomy. Most notably, the assembly affirmed a modern legal formulation of Lithuanian statehood: Lithuania as a state with Vilnius as its capital, and with surrounding regions voluntarily associating with it. This formulation became the foundation for all subsequent declarations of modern Lithuanian statehood. This study analyses the role played by the first Lithuanian daily newspaper, Vilniaus žinios [Vilnius News] (1904– 1907), in the organization of the Great Seimas of Vilnius and in the dissemination of its proceedings. It examines whether the newspaper assumed the role of coordinating the intellectual efforts of the Lithuanian national movement – functions previously carried out by the Lithuanian underground periodical press (Varpas [The Bell], 1889–1905; Ūkininkas [The Farmer], 1890–1905; Tėvynės sargas [Guardian of the Fatherland], 1896–1904). The article argues that, for a brief period between September 1905 and March 1906, Vilniaus žinios became the focal point of the national movement’s activities, serving as the central medium for organizing, coordinating, and publicizing the Seimas and its resolutions – resolutions that expressed the political will of the Lithuanian nation at a critical historical juncture. It asks: What role did Vilniaus žinios play in this pivotal moment of the Lithuanian national movement? Did it become the successor to the functions previously performed by the underground Lithuanian press? And how were these developments connected to the broader context of the 1905 Russian Revolution?
Copyright (c) 2025 Rimantas Miknys https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Authors guidelines prepared by the editorial board.
Copyright (c) 2022 Parliamentary Studies https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Contents of the Journal “Parlamento studijos / Parliamentary Studies” Nos. 31–33
The Diamond OA peer-reviewed academic journal Parliamentary Studies was established in 2004 by the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. Its purpose is to encourage research in the fields of democratic governance, parliamentarism and political culture. The journal publishes articles by political analysts, historians, sociologists, researchers in linguistics and law as well as authors within the discipline of political communication. The contents of Parliamentary Studies Nos. 31–33 are presented here. The editor-in-chief is Andrius Vaišnys, and the managing editor is Darius Žiemelis.
Copyright (c) 2022 Darius Žiemelis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Parlamento studijos, 2025, Nr. 35 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Annual Conference “2025. World Tendencies and National Security. Foresights. Challenges. Scenarios”
The main theme of the sixth annual conference on global trends and national security, organized on January 23, 2025 by the National Library’s of Lithuania Strategic Forecasting Department and the Lithuanian Parliament’s Committee for the Future was regional policy and state resilience. In his welcoming address, the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda, noted that the relationship between regional policy and state resilience is one of the most important issues in Lithuania today, as the rapid growth of the country’s economy has led to a lack of attention to regional policy and an uneven distribution of the yield of growth. Ginas Dabašinskas. Metinė konferencija „2025-ieji. Pasaulinės tendencijos ir nacionalinis saugumas. Įžvalgos. Iššūkiai. Scenarijai“ 79 Vytautas Grubliauskas, Chairman of the Committee for the Future, reminded that the institutional framework for future insights in Lithuania is formed by several institutions, the Seimas Committee for the Future, the Seimas Chancellery and the Government Chancellery, the Government’s Strategic Analysis Center STRATA, the National Library’s of Lithuania Strategic Forecasting Department, Lithuanian universities, other research institutions and centers. Their role is important because of the increasing global and regional risks and challenges to the economy, social activities, and finances. Therefore, it makes the issue of the public sector’s and the entire state’s resilience to systemic threats especially relevant. The presentations focused on the need to activate regional policy in the search for institutional solutions, such as the establishment of a regional ministry. After discussing the experience of local government regulation in the EU and the challenges arising from the implementation of regional policy, it was concluded that global uncertainty is a reality in which we must act and make decisions, including existential ones. Therefore, the conference on future global trends and national security is necessary as a platform that allows politicians to hear experts and vice versa.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ginas Dabašinskas https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In his new book, Critique of Political Reason, philosopher Alvydas Jokubaitis draws on the works of Immanuel Kant to answer questions about the nature of politics. The link between the power of decision and politics, as once observed by Hannah Arendt, serves as Jokubaitis’s starting point. In other words, the book carefully analyzes the proximity and amity between aesthetics and politics. With this assumption in mind, the author scrutinizes Kant’s major works and, as it were, fills in the gaps left by the great thinker, where an explanation of the nature of politics might lie. In the newest Jokubaitis’s book, it unfolds in the interpretation of the principles of beauty, taste and aesthetics, which, for the author, are a means of understanding the origins of politics.
Copyright (c) 2025 Linas Kontrimas https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
I Am Choosing a Book Published by the Vilnius University Faculty of Law
The publication consists of seventeen articles dedicated to the thirtieth anniversary of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania. The articles by different authors examine the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court on various legal issues. The authors scrutinize different areas of law, providing a multifaceted view of the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court. The articles predominantly apply the historical approach, showing the origins and development of the Constitutional Court’s position on a particular issue over the thirty-year period under review. The collection analyzes and evaluates the doctrine of the Constitutional Court on various issues that have attracted the attention of leading lawyers and society, such as the limits of the people’s freedom to hold a referendum; (hidden) attempts by the Constitutional Court to change its jurisprudence; the application of legal principles; the justification of individual constitutional complaints; the interaction between the arguments of the Constitutional Court and other courts; issues of legislative omissions, and etc.
Copyright (c) 2025 Giedrė Lastauskienė https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Usual Trends of Lithuanian Politics in the 2024 Lithuanian Parliamentary Elections
The 2024 Seimas elections was held after four difficult years. For the first time in history, a state of emergency was declared. During the last term, the Seimas adopted the Electoral Code and two amendments to the Constitution that are relevant to the Seimas election process. 1,740 candidates and 15 candidate lists participated in the elections. The opposition Lithuanian Social Democratic Party won the elections, while the ruling Homeland Union–Lithuanian Christian Democrats finished in second place. Two new political forces entered the Seimas, and two parliamentary parties failed to cross the 5% barrier, one of which—the Freedom Party—continued a long series of elections in which at least one ruling party no longer entered the Seimas. After the elections, three parties, the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, the Dawn of Nemunas and the Union of Democrats For Lithuania, formed the coalition. Three parliamentary parties changed their leadership. This article provides an overview of statistical and other parameters of the 2024 Seimas elections in a comparative context.
Copyright (c) 2025 Matas Baltrukevičius https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0