Minority response to ethnic democracy: Poles in Lithuania after EU accession
ENThis article focuses on the evolution of Polish minority responses to Lithuanian minority policies in the post-EU-accession period. State-minority conflicts in Lithuania have not generated violence or minority radicalization, despite continuing discontent among members of the state’s Polish minority (which constitutes Lithuania’s largest ethnic minority population) and the failure of the Lithuanian state to resolve the causes of discontent. Employing Smooha’s concept of ethnic democracy, the article addresses this puzzle through an ethnographic exploration of the views held by members of the Polish minority about the Lithuanian state’s policies of nation-building. The findings reveal a diverse set of critical perceptions among Poles in Lithuania, which emphasize the ineffectiveness of state policies in addressing minority needs. However, a shared perception of threat from Russia, generated after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, helps to sustain the regime’s stability and its strategy of stalling the resolution of minority concerns. Keywords: Europeanization, Ethnic democracy, Minority rights. [From the publication]
- Baigiamųjų klasių moksleivių požiūris į lenkus ir lietuvių-lenkų santykius / Vidmantas Vyšniauskas, Giedrė Baltrušaitytė. Kultūra ir visuomenė: socialinių tyrimų žurnalas 2015, Nr. 6 (1), p. 91-107.
- Ethnicity as political cleavage: the political agenda of the Polish national minority in Lithuania / Diana Janušauskienė. Nationalities papers. 2016, Vol. 44, no. 4, p. 578-590.
- Fitting in the Baltics: national identity, minorities and compliance with EU accession requirements in Lithuania and Latvia / Francesco Duina, Carlo Miani. Comparative European politics. 2015, 13, p. 535–552.
- Language, religion, and ethnicity-making at Polish-language schools in Lithuania / Kristina Šliavaitė. Polish sociological review. 2023, 221 (1), p. 127-144.
- Tarpetniniai lenkų ir lietuvių santykiai Rytų ir Pietryčių Lietuvoje 1953-1959 m / Vitalija Stravinskienė. Istorija. 2010, Nr. 77, p. 42-51.
