Pokomunistinio ekonominio elito vertybių evoliucija Lietuvoje, 1996-2000

Ten years ago the Soviet regime collapsed in Eastern and Central Europe. From that time on we can reasonably talk about the emergence of post-Soviet economic elite. The economic elite based on enterpreneurship is centrifugal, releasing creative social forces and activating changes within the power elite. An overview of the evolution of its value orientations casts light on its learning experience and on the situation of this elite within the power elite and society in general. In our research area, we observe a changing character of coexistence between masses and elite. The antagonism typical of the Soviet power-society relations becomes less clearly pronounced, since masses and elite more and more diverge as autonomous social groups which share less cultural and political meanings in common. Over the years of transition in Lithuania, most prominent changes are perceived in elite's evaluation of the Lithuanian monetary policy (Litas), fiscal policy (taxes), legal system (public order and security), several modalities of economic policies (inflation, business contracts, economic growth, privatization, unemployment), different social problems (poverty, middle class, corruption) and political attitudes (left-right, ethnic and class conflicts, foreign influence and foreign capital). A considerable shift in priorities towards free market over democracy has occurred and the idea of the "minimal state" has cast the root in the economic elite understanding of the desirable socio-economic tendencies. The Lithuanian economic elite's priorities and interests quite resolutely indicate that one should be very cautious to be optimistic about the development of the participatory, inclusive democracy in the near future in the post-communist region