Back | Programme Area: Governance (2000 - 2009)
Ethnic Structure, Inequality and Governance of the Public Sector in Lithuania (Draft)
The research report consists of four main parts related to the ethnic composition of Lithuania and its impact on different policy issues covered with regards to Lithuania's unipolar ethnic structure. The first section deals with the general situation in relation to the ethnic composition and its changes in the last decades. It covers migration processes, focusing on peculiarities of both the Soviet period and the independent state. It includes a discussion of distribution and description of ethnic minorities throughout the country. A short overview of four administrative units to be analyzed further is presented. This section elaborates on the social and cultural cleavages of ethnic minorities and aspects of social adaptation. When analyzing social disadvantages, emphasis is placed on the matters and trends of employment, labour market segmentation, unemployment rates and some aspects of the ethnic structure in the private sector.
The next section of the report deals with ethnic cleavages in the public sector. The legal mechanism and framework of ethnic minority issues, mostly related to the protection of minority rights, will be shortly reviewed at the beginning. With reference to the issues of ethnic cleavages in politics, the main focus will be on election rules and the following key public institutions, both on the national and local levels: parliament (the Seimas) and political parties, executive bodies of the government, civil service and electoral, administrative bodies on the local level of municipalities. The analysis will further elaborate on the issues regarding representation or uneven distribution of offices and posts and on how this could be viewed and treated; and conclusions on possible determinants of the situation and their relation to the public at large will be made.
The final chapter is related to the public policy on civic and political participation of ethnic minority groups. The latter will cover major institutions and documents related to the ethnic policy and its strategic perspectives. Also, taking into account the main findings of the report, recommendatory notes are presented, which mainly focus on the measures aimed at increasing and encouraging visible participation of minorities.
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