ABSTRACT
Lithuania is a relatively young country. Its statehood had evolved in typical stages: Lithuania was a conqueror who was defeated, it was conquered, occupied and regained independence several times. In the second half of the 20th century, it was dependent on the Soviet Union. Today, Lithuania has a functional democracy and a thriving economy, and it is a member of the international community with a clear voice and a solid reputation. With a wave of authoritarianism sweeping across much of the world, Lithuania, as other European countries, is struggling to maintain democracy. Young people’s citizenship activity plays a key role in democracy developing and consolidating. In this chapter, young people’s attitudes to citizenship and democracy will be consider using the metaphor of ‘workdays’ (high engagement) and ‘weekends’ (relaxation) activity. Status of democracy is examined (based on V-Dem report, see: Lührmann, et al. 2019) in four indicators: (1) Media Independence, (2) Freedom of Speech and Action, (3) Repression and Intimidation and (4) Election Honesty. Citizenship activity is analyzed based on Zalewska and Krzywosz-Rynkiewicz model (2018) as: (1) Passive Citizenship, defined as a sense of national identity and patriotism, (2) Semi-active Citizenship, defined as civic virtues and loyalty to state institutions and (3) Active Citizenship which comprises four sub-dimensions: social, political, action for change and personal activity. A total of 372 young adults participated in the study. Results show that young people perceive minor improvement in democracy indicators. They demonstrate high levels of passive citizenship (sense of national identity) and Semi-active citizenship (civic virtues, voting in elections and action for change). They are not willing to engage in politics or stage protests. Despite the fact that general perceptions of democracy were not correlated with general citizenship activity, associations between general citizenship activity and particular indicators of democracy status were observed.
