Approbation of Results Obtained During Interview: Research of Possibilities for Exercising the Rights of Political Oppositions in Lithuanian Self-Government

Abstract

Analysing the problematic aspects of the legal regulation of local self-government of the Republic of Lithuania related to the realisation of the rights provided for the minority (opposition) of the municipal council in the Law on Local Self-Government and other legal acts, the following empirical research was performed. During the research, the method of interviews was used in order to identify, as precisely as possible, the problems of the realisation of the rights of political minorities (opposition) in the whole Lithuanian municipality. It is the interview method that was chosen to ensure the interaction between the researcher and the respondent, which enables to obtain the widest and deepest possible information in identifying practical problems and also allows to collect the detailed data needed to solve the identified problems. The interview focused on the target group of respondents from many different Lithuanian municipalities who are fully acquainted with the practical aspects of the realisation of the minority rights of the council. All respondents are current or former opposition members of municipal councils. With the aim of maximising practical benefits, as many as thirty respondents were interviewed in this research. Keywords: local self-government, political minority’s rights, opposition.