ISSUES OF DEVELOPING A CIVIC AND DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY Political Participation Typology in Postcommunist Lithuania

The quantity and quality of political participation is extremely significant during period of consolidation of democracy, because it ensures representation of interests, preferences and needs of citizens and constitutes a precondition for a stable democratic system in postcommunist countries. A comprehensive analysis of conventional modes of political participation as well as their distribution among population in postcommunist Lithuania is still lacking. The focus of my study is the differences between types of participators in political acts in postcommunist Lithuania. The study employs cluster analysis to identify citizen groups and their distribution in Lithuania in accordance with their level of interest in politics and participation in political acts. Various methods and techniques of statistical analysis are applied in order to measure individual factors such as resources, social networks and attitudes that explain differences among the types of participators