This article serves as an introductory note to the “Lithuanian chapter” of the journal. A brief description of the electoral history after the restoration of Lithuanian independence in 1990 is provided, the most important political parties are introduced and their interactions shortly explained. The article also describes basic research on electoral topics in Lithuania.

Key words:

Elections, campaigning, Lithuania

In the 2016 Lithuanian parliamentary election the established political parties suffered an unexpected andcrippling defeat at the hand of the Lithuanian Peasant and Green Union (Lietuvos valstiečių ir žaliųjų sąjunga, LVŽS), a populist one-size-fits-all formation. The traditionalmessage of the establishment parties to take care of the economy, to advance foreign investment and improve business climate did not appealto voters, while the LVŽS made a pointof talking about issues people wanted to hear: the need to tackle social exclusion and poverty; to addresstheprivileged position of big business; to fight endemic corruption; to deal with the underfunding of education and culture. The electoral message of the winner combines the hard left promise of radical change on socioeconomic issues and the far right conservative approachto identity politics, human rights, minority rights, gender equality, and refugees. The LVŽS did its best to look as an anti-establishment, anti-party politics force, a loose and wide amalgam of contrastingpersonalities and contradicting messages. At the same time, the major factor behind the ‘revolutionary’ victory for radical change seems to be the inability of the mainstream parties to sense the change of sentiment of the electorate and to addressthe growing grievances of the public. The Lithuanian anti-establishment revolt is being compared with Donald Trump’s victory in the US, Brexit in the UK, Poland after the last election in 2015, and Hungary under Victor Orban.

Key words:

Lithuanian politics, Lithuanian election, party politics, populism, establishment, radicalism

Corruption is not just a problem ofdeveloping countries, corruption scandals arise and developin Western democracies, and only the perception and assessment of corruption differ. As scientists state corruptionis a phenomenon that is determined by the country's democratic (state) traditions, and culture, dominant values and behaviour standards, etc.

Most of the time corruption is analysed in the context of political, business, health care, media systems, that are interrelated. By far talking about the understanding and reaction to corruption in politics, are based on public perception of corruption. Corruption in political arena is related not only with actions of politicians, or public officers, but depends on the understanding and tolerating it in society. The cases of political corruption are rare, but still happening in various countries, in no relation are those developing countries, the newly established democracy, or so called western democracies. The phenomenon of political corruption is based on political culture, or even more broadly on national culture, traditions. And because of that cases of political corruption and their evaluation and reaction by the participants of political system (political actors, media and citizens) in general demonstrates the level of tolerance of such actions. As the mirror of perception of political corruption in political system the result of political election campaigncould be taken to account, because it demonstrates the activities of all participants of political system and their their attitude toward the case.

This article aims to analyze conception of political corruption in order to identify main determinants of it and to investigate potential influence ofthe case of corruption of political actortothe outcome of the political elections.

In this paper the quantitative media content analysis is presented to show the coverage of the political party in relation to political election campaign during the political election period and political corruption event in search for the factors to determine the presentation and possible impact of political corruption event to the results of political elections. In the research the media content of the political actor, that was accused for corruptive activities (for bribe) was analysed. Also article discusses whether the political corruption of political party leaderand its presentation in media may affect the political election results.

Key words:

corruption, political corruption, bribery, corruption scandal, media, elections

In the course of election campaigns politicians and political parties try their best to highlight their most favored topics that would help them draw public attention and increase people’s regard for specific political figures. In contrast to the positive communication content announced during an election campaign, candidates sometimes choose negative messages that focus on their opponents’ weaknesses (real or imagined) rather than the strengths of the candidates announcing those messages. The goal of this research is to identify the forms and means of negative communication used in political video advertisements during Lithuanian parliamentary election of 2016. To achieve our goal, we analyze the political video advertisements that were categorized as negative communication. We categorize and analyze the advertisements by using concepts of forms of negativity and targets of negativity.Our findings suggest that negative communication is being used by Lithuanian political organizations, but positivity is still dominant in political video advertisements. Despite that, negative aspects of communication are used by different parties, in different and diverse forms and targets.

Key words:

negativity, political communication, online video advertisements, election campaigns

Although an election campaign is a crucial part of political communication that encompasses much more than just development of media strategies or their implementation during elections, yet most solutions of modern election methods are based on the specifics of the mass media. The end recipient of information is misled if media outlets instead of disseminating information about a candidate and his intentions provide a distorted image of an election campaign. The image which is created when politicians seek to attract media attention by using their election methods (such as pseudo-events).

Using literary and source analysis, the paper examines viewpoints of political scientists, sociologists, media and communication theory experts about the process of public information and its particularities during elections. Legal frame work regulating political advertising during elections in Lithuania is presented and the data of an empirical research – the content of the regional press during the 2016 elections to the Seimas (Parliament) of the Republic of Lithuania – is summarised focusing on the behaviour of the regional press. When analysing regional periodicals published during the election campaign, it was aimed to ascertain what roles the regional press chose – that of an observer or a watchdog, a provider of information or an analyst, an evaluator. Content analysis of regional press publications published during the election campaign and a sociological survey of media employees helps to determine what roles the media adopted.

Key words:

election campaign, press, voters, pseudo-events, partisanship, bias, agenda-setting, media

The purpose of this article is to present the analysis of the election results of  Lietuvos lenkų rinkimų akcija-Kriščioniškų šeimų sąjunga (LLRA-KŠS, Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania-Christian Families Alliance) in Lithuania’s Parliamentary elections 2016. The article contains a short review of the development of Lithuanian-Polish relationship. Several new events took place before Parliamentary elections 2016 and had certain impact on elections. First of all, constituency borders were changed in Lithuania what in general was very useful for LLRA-KŠS. Secondly, geopolitical and security situation in Russia changed dramatically because of its aggression in Ukraine and it also revealed prokremlin’s orientation of LLRA-KŠS that in turn had a very negative impact on the party’s image. Probably due to this LLRA-KŠS received about 10 thousand less votes. This drop was most significant in Vilnius city but had an immaterial effect in the constituencies controlled by LLRA-KŠS. Nevertheless, these elections reveal another important fact that voters in Vilnius district value not only candidates' nationalities (as it might be expected) but also their origin and bonds with local communities.

Key words:

Lithuania, election 2016, Lithuanian Poles, Lithuanian Polish party, Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania-Christian Families Alliance

The results of the Seimas elections in 2016 year have revealed one of the greatest transformation in Lithuanian party system since its formation in1992 m. Though there are similarities between the political processes in Lithuania, Poland Hungary, the Czech Republic, however it is important to stress important differences, which enable us to speak about the unique “Lithuanian way”.

First of all, the new political group, which dominates in Lithuanian political system after the elections – Lithuanian Peasants and Green union (LPGU), not only rejected the tradition political continuum of “right-left”, but also has not fit to the main political cleavage in postcommunist political system of Lithuania between ex-communist and anti-communist.

Second, the elections revealed the huge crisis of democracy based on political parties in Lithuania. The dissatisfaction with parties, as the main actors in modern liberal democracy, constantly increases.

Third, we can speak about the decisive victory of anti-politics in Lithuania, the marginalization of the political deliberations and the political competence in the governance of the state.  This triumph of anti-politics in Lithuania is not the outcome of the cultural tradition of anti-politics which was strong in Poland and Czechoslovakia (but not in Lithuania) during the 20th century [Havelka, 2016], but rather the price which we have to pay for the invasion of the mentality of consumption in political sphere.

The main task of this article – to foster the discussion about the future of liberal democracy in Lithuania, about the prospects of political parties and the threat of the final victory of “consumer” against “citizen”, also about the lessons of political life in Lithuania for other post-communist states.

Key words:

elections, anti-politics, consumer, citizen, parties

There is a common belief that the pro-regulatory approach of Democrats, makes them more determined in the fight against big money in campaign elections, whereas Republicans, supporting recent Supreme Court decisions in Citizens United v. F.E.C. and McCutcheon v. F.E.C., benefit from the system more than their political counterparts. The aim of the article is to analyze the real character of the U.S. campaign finance regulations, both from legislative and judicial perspective, and to determine which political party benefits from the system: Republican or Democratic? By underlining the Buckley rule that ‘money is speech’ the Author suggests that campaign contributions and spending are deeply rooted in the character of American political system determining the political future of candidates of both political parties. The article refers to election cycles since 1970s, but it mainly focuses on recent election cycles, including the 2016 presidential election.

Key words:

campaign finance, Republicans and Democrats, U.S. politics and law

Bernie Sanders became the phenomenon of this year's Presidential Primary campaign in the Democratic Party. In order to analyse his road to success, I have decided to focus on three main factors, that helped him conquer on an equal level with Hillary Clinton: his political background, the social media activity of his campaign staff and the celebrity endorsement. The aim of this article is to show, how in the 21st century, the role of the traditional media during the campaign is weakened by the influence of the Internet 2.0 tools. The work also focuses on the behaviour of the American voters and what impact does the regular internet use have on them.

Key words:

Internet 2.0, political marketing, voter behaviour, celebrity endorsement, Democratic Party, social media, political campaigns

Upper Silesia region is recognised as particular due to the forms of social and political behaviour of part of its residents. Upper-Silesians, as ethnic group having strong conviction about their separateness, build political affiliation based on the conflict centre – periphery, at least to some extent. This is certainly true for protagonist of Silesian regional movement, but this article deals with the problem whether voters act similarly. Moreover the article study to some extend the possibility of creation of ethnoregionalist party in the future and what kind of consequences this may have on the politics in the region.

Key words:

regionalist party, ethnoregionalist party, proto-party, Upper Silesians, Upper Silesia