Parliamentary Studies

The Forgotten Politician and Lawyer of the First Republic of Lithuania Pranas Viktoras Raulinaitis and His Secret 1952 Manuscript About the Lithuanian National Sovereignty (Excerpt)

Dovilė Sagatienė — 2021-12-31

We present an excerpt (Part 3. The reborn Lithuania. 15. Sovereignty of a nation within the state constitution) from the manuscript Lietuvių tautos suverenumas; istoriniai-teisinė raida kovų už teisę ir laisvę (‘Lithuanian National Sovereignty: Historical and Legal Development of the Struggle for Rights and Freedom’) prepared in 1952 by the member of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Seimas of the First Republic of Lithuania the PhD doctor in law Pranas Viktoras Raulinaitis (1895–1969). The excerpt has an accompanying text briefly describing the history of the manuscript’s discovery and the author’s biography as well as outlining the potential value of the excerpt. We hope that the publication of this excerpt will trigger interest in the entire work preserved at Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., USA and accelerate the process of its publication not only in the Lithuanian but also in the English language.

Anthropology of Parliaments at the Juncture of the 20th and the 21st Centuries: Methodological Challenges and Trends

Emma Crewe — 2021-12-31

Parliaments are of the centre of webs created by democracy, complex sites where culture meets economics, psychology and politics; elected politicians consult with lobbyists, constituents and each other; and the political work of law-making and scrutiny is achieved. Inter-disciplinary approaches are vital in fathoming this complexity. Relationships are at the heart of politics so it is surprising to find that few anthropologists have ventured into parliaments. Their findings have revealed the hidden everyday workings of democratic politics in several countries but their approach is poorly understood. In this article, ethnographic research by anthropologists over thirty five years is reviewed and contrasted with ethnographies by political scientists, to explain how the theories, methods and contributions of different disciplines are complementary. With the capacity to offer rich accounts of specific parliaments, and generalise about the patterns found across different times and sites, anthropologists in collaboration with other disciplines have the potential to transform the study of parliament into a more entangled form of inquiry.

Contribution of Parliaments and Judicial Institutions into the Protection of Fundamental Rights: Towards a Closer Link

Guillaume Tusseau — 2021-12-31

In contemporary constitutionalism, judges and, afterwards, independent institutions, have been entrusted with the protection of fundamental rights against the tyranny of majorities. However, parliaments, which have a historical role in this respect that cannot be forgotten and institutional abilities that can compete with those of judges, have recently stepped in again. International consciousness-raising has helped revive this concern among parliaments, parliamentarians and parliamentary staff, and make the protection of fundamental rights a shared responsibility. Traditional parliamentary functions – passing bills, controlling the executive, adopting the budget, tabling a motion, investigating, reporting, etc. – can all contribute to the protection of fundamental rights. The latter ‘colour’ the daily operations of political assemblies that are the expression of the citizens’ political rights. More proactively, specific institutional devices, among which the creation of specialised committees like the United Kingdom Joint Committee on Human Rights, can be designed to single out the parliament’s original mission. Whether this truly helps develop a shared interinstitutional culture of sensitiveness to fundamental rights is empirically debatable.

Independent Regulatory Agencies and Political-Administrative Relations in Contemporary European Democracies: Some Tentative Reflections

Cyril Benoît — 2021-12-31

This essay provides a concise overview of the current state of political-administrative relations in Europe’s Parliamentary democracy. It is more particularly focused on presenting the implications that the growth of independent regulatory agencies (IRAs) has had on such relationship, and on reviewing the empirical evidence in support of three distinct scenarios – one in which politicians abdicate their control power over IRAs to the benefit of interest groups; one where IRAs maintain and expand their autonomy or de facto independence both vis-à-vis politicians and interest-groups; and one where politicians regain control over IRAs and their decisions. I argue that even if the second scenario has received extended empirical support, politicization under the regulatory order could well be under-estimated – with broader implications for political-administrative relations that are briefly introduced.

The Sovereignty of the Visegrád Group Political Nations in 2008–2019: From Abusing Neo-Militant Democracy to Quasi-Militant Democracy

Joanna Rak — 2021-12-31

The article, by drawing on the theory of militant democracy and qualitative source analysis, focuses on the relation between the national law and militant democracy in the Visegrád Group countries (Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland) and the impact that it had on the sovereignty of these political nations in 2008–2019. It is essential to understand what protective measures were used and which of them were targeted at protecting democratic social structures. The study shows the presence of neo- and quasi-militant democracy measures in the national legislation of each V4 country. The neo-militant measures were outdated, since they concerned protection from ideas and political groups that were not widely supported in Europe. The regulations enforced did not protect the political nations from the rule of anti-democratic forces. They were insensitive to new populist groups and hybrid interferences. Quasi-militant measures were used to shape the political nations in a discretionary way and undermine their sovereignty. On the one hand, anti-democratic actors were considered enemies of democracy. On the other hand, the regulations in force led to the exclusion of democratic forces from the political scene. In other words, anyone could become an enemy of democracy if their views and actions did not fit in with the ruling parties’ political agendas or were clearly against their interests.

Propensity to Political Polarization and Echo Chambers of Facebook Pages of Lithuanian Political Parties and Independent Political Civic Movements

Justina Januškevičiūtė — 2021-12-31

Despite the growing usage of social media platforms for sharing and using political news both in Lithuania and abroad, researchers overlook the role of these platforms in the development and consumption of political content. The context of social media and its predominant selective content endanger the most vulnerable groups of people without clear political views. The result is growing political polarization and the emergence of echo chambers. On the basis of research studies, the article defines changes in the political news consumption process directly caused by the environment of social media platforms. The reasons and conditions are distinguished under which echo chambers are likely to arise in social media. In order to identify manifestations of this process, an empirical study of Facebook pages of eight Lithuanian political parties and political civic movements was conducted from 1 May to 30 June 2021, the period demonstrating apparent collisions and initiatives of diverse political views. The research exposed the fact that audiences were prone to political polarization and had features of echo chambers. Political civic movements, unlike political parties, were more prone to political polarization and had more pronounced features of echo chambers. These audiences tended to be more supportive of their preconceptions and this inevitably leads to extreme opinions.

Editorial Board and Table of Contents

2021-12-31

From the Editor.

Some Remarks About Information Services Pertaining to Political Leadership

Andrius Vaišnys — 2021-12-31

From the Editor.

Guidelines to the Authors

2021-12-31

Authors Guidelines prepared by the Editorial Board

Commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania as a Parliamentary Library: The International Research Conference ‘Political Leadership in a Parliamentary Democracy’

Daiva Janavičienė — 2021-12-31

Three decades ago, on 20 November 1991, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania was entrusted with the function of a parliamentary library. On this occasion, there was the international research conference ‘Political Leadership in a Parliamentary Democracy’ held at the National Library on 23–24 November 2021 with a view to discussing the following thematic issues: (1) provision of information services for legislators and decision makers (challenges related to information analysis), (2) communication and philosophy of political leadership from the perspective of democratic parliamentarism, (3) developments in information policy, and (4) role and experience of national libraries in a social crisis. Reports were presented by researchers from the United Kingdom, France, Poland, Bulgaria, Latvia, and Lithuania. The article introduces the presentations clustered according to these thematic issues.

Service of the Honorary Consul General for the Occupied and Free Lithuania

Audronė Veilentienė — 2021-12-31

The review discusses the monograph by Juozas Skirius ‘Garbės generalinis konsulas Vytautas Čekanauskas: atstovavimas Lietuvai JAV Vakarų pakrantėje’ (‘The Honorary Consul General Vytautas Čekanauskas: Representing Lithuania on the West Coast of the United States’). The study, by drawing on sources for the first time included into the Lithuanian historiography, analyses the service of the Honorary Consul General Vytautas Čekanauskas for the Occupied and Free Lithuania. The monograph presents itself as a significant contribution to the history of the Lithuanian diaspora and diplomacy.

Bibliography of the Lithuanian Parliamentarism: From March 2021 to March 2022

Virgilija Beganskaitė — 2021-12-31

The continuation of the bibliographic lists ‘Lithuanian Parliamentary System / Parliamentarism’ published in issues Nos. 4 (2005), 6 (2006), 10, 11 (2011), 12, 13 (2012), 14, 15 (2013), 16, 17 (2014), 18, 19 (2015), 20, 21 (2016), 22, 23 (2017), 24, 25 (2018), 26, 27 (2019), 28, 29 (2020) and 30 (2021) of the scholarly journal Parliamentary Studies. It includes published books and articles published in research serials received by the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania from March 2021 to March 2022.