Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vsgnj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T16:45:43.689Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

State, Nation, and the National Flag in Post-Soviet Lithuania: Legitimating Identities of the State in Institutional and Social Discourses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2019

Eglė Kesylytė-Alliks
Eglė Kesylytė-Alliks*
Affiliation:
Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
*
*Corresponding author. Email: egle.kesylyte@gmail.co
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article explores discursive construction of legitimating identity(-ies) of the state within official institutional and semipublic social discourses on the national flag in post-1990 Lithuania. By doing so, it contributes to the continuous discussion regarding the puzzling coexistence of a relatively stable democratic regime and a limited degree of social and ethnic unrest with signs of political alienation in Lithuania. It argues that an empirical approach to legitimacy studies paired with research on national symbols and discourse analysis can contribute to a better understanding of this problem. The article concludes that the most prominent legitimating identity of the state coming forth in the official discourse is that of the state as an object of love and respect. This view is both shared and challenged within the semipublic discourse—especially regarding issues of instrumental performance of the state as well as the ability to accommodate both the initiative and autonomy of its people within political affairs.

Keywords

Legitimacylegitimationnational symbolsdiscourse analysisLithuaniapolitical alienation
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , May 2019 , pp. 445 - 460
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agarin, Timofey. 2012. “Resident Aliens? Explaining Minority Disaffection with Democratic Politics in the Baltic States.” Ethnopolitics 12 (4): 331–351.Google Scholar
Akstinavičiūtė, Ieva, and Petraitytė, Daiva. 2007. “Lietuvių tautinės tapatybės simbolinių komponentų konfigūracijos.” Filosofija. Sociologija 18 (2): 14–31.Google Scholar
Barbour, Rosaline. 2007. Doing Focus Groups. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Barker, Rodney. 2001. Legitimating Identities: The Self-Presentations of Rulers and Subjects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Barker, Rodney. 2007. “Democratic Legitimation: What Is It, Who Wants It, and Why?” In Legitimacy in an Age of Global Politics: Transformations of the State, edited by Steffen Schneider, Frank Nullmeier, and Achim Hurrelmann, 19-34. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Barrington, Lowell W. 1998. “The Making of Citizenship Policy in the Baltic States.” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 13 (2): 159–199.Google Scholar
Beetham, David. 2000. “Legitimacy.” In Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 479–480. Florence: Routledge.Google Scholar
Beresnevičiūtė, Vida, and Nausėdienė, Inga. 1999. “Trys Lietuvos dienraščiai apie tautines mažumas Lietuvoje”/ “The Ethnic Minorities in Three Daily Papers (‘Lietuvos Aidas,’ ‘Lietuvos Rytas,’ ‘Respublika’).” Sociologija: mintis ir veiksmas / Sociology: Thought and Action 3 (1): 67–78.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 2006. Nationalist Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Budryte, Dovile, and Pilinkaite-Sotirovic, Vilana. 2009. “Lithuania: Progressive Legislation without Popular Support.” In Minority Rights in Central and Eastern Europe , edited by Bernd Rechel, 151–165. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Clark, Terry D. 2006. “Nationalism in Post-Soviet Lithuania: New Approaches for the Nation of ‘Innocent Sufferers.’” In After Independence: Making and Protecting the Nation in Postcolonial and Postcommunist States, edited by Lowell W. Barrington, 162–186. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Dambrauskaitė, Živilė, Janeliūnas, Tomas, Gira, Vytautas Sirijos, and Jurkonis, Vytis. 2011. “Lithuanian-Polish Relations Reconsidered: A Constrained Bilateral Agenda or an Empty Strategic Partnership?” Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review 26: 100–144.Google Scholar
de Cillia, Rudolf, Reisigl, Martin, and Wodak, Ruth. 1999. “The Discursive Construction of National Identities.” Discourse and Society 10 (2): 149–173.Google Scholar
Donskis, Leonidas. 2011. Modernity in Crisis: A Dialogue on the Culture of Belonging. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Duvold, Kjetil, and Jurkynas, Mindaugas. 2013. “Lithuania.” In The Handbook of Political Change in Eastern Europe , edited by Sten Berglund, Joakim Ekman, Kevin Deegan-Krause, and Terje Knutsen, 125–166. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar
Duvold, Kjetil, and Berglund, Sten. 2014. “Democracy between Ethnos and Demos: Territorial Identification and Political Support in the Baltic States.” East European Politics and Societies 28 (2): 341–365.Google Scholar
Eidintas, Alfonsas. 2012. “Lietuvos žydų turto restitucija: istorijos naratyvų problema (1990 - 2011 metais).” In Istorija kaip politinio mąstymo veiksnys, edited by Raimundas Lopata et al., 258–349. Vilnius: Vilniaus universitetas.Google Scholar
Elgenius, Gabriella. 2011. Symbols of Nations and Nationalism: Celebrating Nationhood. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Eriksen, Thomas Hylland, and Jenkins, Richard, eds. 2007. Flag, Nation and Symbolism in Europe and America. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fern, Edward F. 2001. Advanced Focus Group Research. Los Angeles: Sage.Google Scholar
Frėjutė-Rakauskienė, Monika. 2011. “Russians in Lithuania and Latvia: The Interaction of European, Regional and Local Identities.” Ethnicity Studies 1 (2): 80–110.Google Scholar
Frėjutė-Rakauskienė, Monika. 2012. “Lithuanian Press and Public Opinion about the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian Ethnic Groups and New Immigrants.” Ethnicity Studies 1 (2): 71–102.Google Scholar
Frėjutė-Rakauskienė, Monika. 2015. “Etninių grupių, imigrantų ir LGBT žmonių reprezentacija Lietuvos interneto dienraščiuose.” Paper read at Nuomonės raiška Lietuvos internetinėje erdvėje: žmogaus teisės, etika ir teisminė praktika, Vilnius, Lithuania.Google Scholar
Frėjutė-Rakauskienė, Monika, and Šliavaitė, Kristina. 2012. “Russians, Poles and Belarusians in Lithuania: Interplay of Local, Regional and European Identities.” Ethnicity Studies 1 (2): 126–144.Google Scholar
Gamson, William A. 1992. Talking Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Geisler, Michael E. 2005. “Introduction: What Are National Symbols—and What Do They Do to Us?” In National Symbols, Fractured Identities: Contesting the National Narrative, edited by Michael E. Geisler, ix–xiii. Middlebury: Middlebury College Press.Google Scholar
Grybauskaitė, Dalia. 2014. “Lithuania’s President: ‘Russia Is Terrorizing Its Neighbors and Using Terrorist Methods.’” Interview by Lally Weymouth. Washington Post, September 24. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lithuanias-president-russia-is-terrorizing-its-neighbors-and-using-terrorist-methods/2014/09/24/eb32b9fc-4410-11e4-b47c-f5889e061e5f_story.html?utm_term=.3776b77c6884.Google Scholar
Harrison, Simon. 1995. “Four Types of Symbolic Conflict.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1 (2): 255–272.Google Scholar
Hurrelmann, , Achim, Steffen Schneider, and Steffek, Jens, eds. 2007. Legitimacy in an Age of Global Politics: Transformations of the State. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Jackson, Robert. 1999. “Sovereignty in World Politics: A Glance at the Conceptual and Historical Landscape.” Political Studies 47 (3): 431–456.Google Scholar
Janušauskienė, Diana. 2016. “Ethnicity as Political Cleavage: The Political Agenda of the Polish National Minority in Lithuania.” Nationalities Papers 44 (4): 578–591.Google Scholar
Jarutis, Vytautas. 2011. “The National Symbols of Lithuania: Inherited or ‘Invented’ Traditions?” Lietuvos istorijos studijos (Mokslo darbai) 28: 129–141.Google Scholar
Kasatkina, Natalija. 2003. “The Adaptation of Ethnic Minority Groups: Defining the Problem (Case of Lithuania).” Ethnicity Studies: 8–29.Google Scholar
Kasekamp, Andres. 2010. A History of the Baltic States. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kitzinger, Jenny, and Barbour, Rosaline S.. 1999. “Introduction: The Challenge and Promise of Focus Groups.” In Developing Focus Group Research: Politics, Theory and Practice, edited by Rosaline S. Barbour and Jenny Kitzinger, 1–20. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Kolstø, Pål, ed. 2014. Strategies of Symbolic Nation-building in South Eastern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Krzyżanowski, Michał. 2008. “Analyzing Focus Group Discussions.” In Qualitative Discourse Analysis in the Social Sciences , edited by Ruth Wodak and Michał Krzyżanowski, 162–182. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Krzyżanowski, Michał. 2010. The Discursive Construction of European Identities: A Multi-Level Approach to Discourse and Identity in the Transforming European Union. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Krzyżanowski, Michał. 2013. “Policy, Policy Communication and Discursive Shifts.” In Analyzing Genres in Political Communication: Theory and Practice, edited by Piotr Cap and Urszula Okulska, 101–133. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
La Rochefoucauld de, François. 1799. The Duke de La Rochefoucault’s Celebrated Maxims and Moral Reflections: Translated (for the First Time) into English Verse. Oxford: J. Bell. Gale Eighteenth Century Collections, microfilm reel 8527, no. 6.Google Scholar
Mesonis, Gediminas. 2012. “Vėliava—Flag—Drapeau, arba ir vėl apie žmogaus teises.” Teisė 83: 18–36.Google Scholar
Ministry of National Defense, Republic of Lithuania. 2015. Lietuvos Respublikos piliečių rengimo valstybės gynybai strategija [Strategy of the preparation of the citizens of the Republic of Lithuania for the defense of the state]. Vilnius.Google Scholar
Mishler, William, and Rose, Richard. 2007. “Generation, Age, and Time: The Dynamics of Political Learning during Russia’s Transformation.” American Journal of Political Science 51 (4): 822–834.Google Scholar
Neundorf, Anja. 2010. “Democracy in Transition: A Micro Perspective on System Change in Post-Socialist Societies.” Journal of Politics 72 (4): 1096–1108.Google Scholar
Nikžentaitis, Alvydas, Stefan, Schreiner, and Staliūnas, Darius, eds. 2004. The Vanished World of Lithuanian Jews. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Ortner, Sherry B. 1973. “On Key Symbols.” American Anthropologist 75 (5): 1338–1346.Google Scholar
Pettai, Eva-Claritta, and Pettai, Vello. 2014. Transitional and Retrospective Justice in the Baltic States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ramonaitė, Ainė. 2005. “Conceptions of Democracy in Post-Soviet Lithuania.” Lithuanian Political Science Yearbook 2004, 71–90. Vilnius: Institute of International Relations and Political Science. Google Scholar
Ramonaitė, Ainė. 2007. Posovietinės Lietuvos politinė anatomija. Vilnius: Versus Aureus.Google Scholar
Reisigl, Martin, and Wodak, Ruth. 2001. Discourse and Discrimination: Rhetorics of Racism and Antisemitism. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Reisigl, Martin, and Wodak, Ruth. 2009. “The Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA).” In Methods for Critical Discourse Analysis, edited by Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer, 87–121. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Rimša, Edmundas. 2008. The Heraldry of Lithuania. Vilnius: Baltos Lankos.Google Scholar
Rose, Richard. 2007. “Learning to Support New Regimes in Europe.” Journal of Democracy, 18(3): 111–125.Google Scholar
Savukynas, Virginijus. 2000. “Lietuvos lenkai ir rusai: dvi skirtingos laikysenos” [Lithuania’s Poles and Russians: Two different perspectives]. Politologija 2 (18): 67–84.Google Scholar
Schenkkan, Nate. 2017. Nations in Transit 2017: The False Promise of Populism. Washington, DC: Freedom House. https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/NIT2017_booklet_FINAL_0.pdf. (Accessed January 3, 2019.)Google Scholar
Steffen, Schneider, Nullmeier, Frank, and Hurrelmann, Achim. 2007. “Exploring the Communicative Dimension of Legitimacy: Text Analytical Approaches.” In Legitimacy in an Age of Global Politics: Transformations of the State , edited by Achim Hurrelmann, Steffen Schneider, and Jens Steffek, 126–155. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Staliūnas, Darius. 2005. “From Ethnocentric to Civic History: Changes in Contemporary Lithuanian Historical Studies.” In Emerging Meso-areas in the Former Socialist Countries: Histories Revived or Improvised, edited by Kimitaka Matsuzato, 311–331. Sapporo: Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University.Google Scholar
Statistics, Lithuania. 2013. Lietuvos Respublikos 2011 metų visuotinio gyventojų ir būstų surašymo rezultatai [2011 general population and housing census results of the Republic of Lithuania]. Vilnius.Google Scholar
Steen, Anton. 2006. “Accessioning Liberal Compliance? Baltic Elites and Ethnic Politics under New International Conditions.” International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 13 (2/3): 187–207.Google Scholar
Tilley, James. 2002. “Political Generations and Partisanship in the UK, 1964–1997.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society) 165 (1): 121–135.Google Scholar
Weymouth, Lally. 2014. “Lithuania’s President: ‘Russia Is Terrorizing Its Neighbors and Using Terrorist Methods.’” Washington Post, September 24. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lithuanias-president-russia-is-terrorizing-its-neighbors-and-using-terrorist-methods/2014/09/24/eb32b9fc-4410-11e4-b47c-f5889e061e5f_story.html?utm_term=.3776b77c6884. (Accessed January 1, 2019.)Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth, Cillia, Rudolf de, Reisigl, Martin, and Liebhart, Karin. 2009. The Discursive Construction of National Identity. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth. 2001. “The Discourse-Historical Approach.” In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, edited by Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer, 63–95. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Yack, Bernard. 2001. “Popular Sovereignty and Nationalism.” Political Theory 29 (4): 517–536.Google Scholar