Monitorial Citizenship: a Case of Lithuania

Abstract

Traditionally active citizenship has been conceived in statist terms and linked to citizen participation and support for democratic institutions. Proponents of the postmodern citizenship indicate that the decline of traditional forms of citizen participation such as memberships in political parties and trade unions, voting, declining trust in government and rising political cynicism among publics may be explained as the shift from traditional to the new forms of citizenship. Post-transitional problems such as rising aspirations of economic well-being and persisting inequality led to a decline of citizen participation rates in postcommunist countries. The focus of this article is to investigate what types of citizenship actually occurs in Lithuania. Based on the survey conducted in Lithuania in 2006, the article draws conclusions that postmodern citizenship occurs in Lithuania, but it does not confirm theoretical expectations. From the theoretical perspective of the postmodern citizenship, the characteristics of identified groups’ (the traditional citizens, the monitorial citizens, the opportunistic citizens and the bold citizens) are mixed, because of socioeconomic and cultural conditions in Lithuania.