Department of Political Behavior and Institutions

The Department focuses on the empirical studies of post-communist countries, in particular, on the political behaviour and political institutions in Lithuania. The Department is responsible for the Lithuanian National Election Study. Besides the socio-political analysis of current Lithuanian society, it works on the historical-anthropological research on Lithuanian everyday life, social networking and cultural resistance during the Soviet period.

Fields of research of the department:

Party politics and electoral behaviour

The implementation of the National Election Study of Lithuania since 2012. Cooperation with The True European Voter, CSES, MEDem; development of the VAA project manobalsas.lt.

Books published:  „Partinės demokratijos pabaiga? Politinis atstovavimas ir ideologijos“ [“The End of Party Democracy?”] (2009), „Kaip renkasi Lietuvos rinkėjai? Idėjos, interesai ir įvaizdžiai politikoje“ [How Do Lithuanian Voters Choose?] (2014), „Ar galime prognozuoti Seimo rinkimus? [“Can We Forecast Seimas Elections?”] (2018).

Civil Society, political participation, political attitudes and political communication

Books published: „Neatrasta galia: Lietuvos pilietinės visuomenės žemėlapis“ [“Undiscovered Power: The Map of Lithuanian Civil Society”] (2006), „Posovietinės Lietuvos politinė anatomija“ [“Political Anatomy of Post-Soviet Lithuania”] (2007), „Tarp Rytų ir Vakarų: Lietuvos visuomenės geokultūrinės nuostatos“ [“Between East and West: Geocultural Attitudes of the Lithuanian Society”] (2007), „Kalbėjimas paraštėse: alternatyvios viešosios erdvės Lietuvoje“ [“Speaking in Margins: The Alternative Public Spheres in Lithuania] (2009), „Rusijos informacijos geopolitikos potencialas ir sklaida Lietuvoje“ [“Potential of Russian Information Geopolitics and Dissemination in Lithuania”], „Pasitikėjimas valstybe: prielaidos, iššūkiai, sprendimai“ [“Trust in the State: Assumptions, Challenges, Solutions”] (2017), „Kas eitų ginti Lietuvos: pilietinio pasipriešinimo prielaidos ir galimybės“ [“Who would go to defend Lithuania? Preconditions and capacities of civic resistance] (2018)

Democracy, political institutions, comparative politics

Publications of Liutauras Gudžinskas, Mažvydas Jastramskis, Jogilė Ulinskaitė, Deividas Šlekys, e-democracy project.

Activities of the department: 

  • Scientific and methodological seminars; 
  • Preparation and implementation of research projects; 
  • Collaboration with Lithuanian public institutions (consulting, research presentation, applied research); 
  • International networking (cooperation with foreign research institutions, international networks, invitations of foreign researchers, etc.).