A Subjective evaluation of the quality of life in Lithuania: a comparative perspective
ENThis article is devoted to the investigation of the subjective view of Lithuanian people towards their quality of life during the first decade of Independence. This decade was one of most difficult periods for the majority of the Lithuanian population as it marked crucial transformations in the economic, political and social spheres. The collapse of centralized economy, the breakdown of great industrial companies and the privatization process in industrial and agricultural areas seriously destroyed the accustomed order of economic life. The loss of deposits in the Central Bank of the former Soviet Union, the speculation of financial pyramids, inflation and destruction of the state welfare system essentially worsened the financial situation of almost the entire population. Turbulence within the political system – the appearance of numerous parties and interest groups, followed by aberrant political fights for power, together with increased distrust and dissatisfaction – radically changed the previous sense of stability and social solidarity. In turn these new developments affected everyone’s life: the majority lost their jobs or were forced to change professions, part of the population became disoriented and lost in the face of newly spreading capitalist and individualist values, while others managed to adapt to the new environment.There are many studies of objective indicators of quality of life that measure external conditions of well-being and are independent of personal evaluations, such as living conditions, unemployment rate, the poverty rate, working hours per week, or the prenatal mortality rate, etc. (Noll, 2005). However, the recent development in quality of life studies shows increasing interest towards subjective social indicators as informative measures of people’s well-being (Cummins et al., 2002; Schimmack et al., 2003). Such a shift of focus is grounded on the assumption that it is not sufficient to examine living standard, level and style of life without taking into account the evaluation of these life conditions by individuals themselves. For example, a person can consider his or her life conditions as objectively bad, but at the same time he or she can be satisfied with such situation because these material conditions have little value for him or her. Therefore, the subjective evaluation of the quality of life becomes very important when we want to deal directly with priorities of individuals, their life experiences and sense of well-being.
