Drawing on research on political culture and research on geopolitical orientations, this article analyses public opinion in the three Baltic states (2014 and 2021), focusing on political support, inter-ethnic relations and geopolitical attitudes. In the first section, the empirical analysis demonstrates widespread public support for the national communities in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Most respondents feel a sense of attachment to or pride in their respective homeland, and a relative majority of all respondents feel that their contemporary political systems are preferable to other systems in the past. At the same time, the analysis alert us to distinct ethnic differences: the Russian-speakers in the three countries tend to be decidedly more nostalgic about the Soviet past and less satisfied with the present regimes. Confirming and updating findings familiar from previous studies, this article also notes that the population groups in the three Baltic states were growing more or less accustomed to the domestic situation, up until the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2022. In the second part of the article, we turn to geopolitical belonging and security perceptions in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. 

Drawing on in-depth interviews, this essay investigates professional strategies and researcher identity constructions in the precarious postdoctoral phase. The analysis indicates that most of the informants in the present study seem to be somewhere in the middle of the process of establishing a postdoctoral/early-career identity. The essay underlines the need for better preparing PhD students for the postdoctoral phase; and suggests that to most of the informants, the emerging researcher identities are secondary to more pressing issues, relating to survival in academia alltogether.

This article takes stock of research on political participation and civic engagement in Albania, a country generally perceived as lacking a civil society and a democratic political culture. Rather, Albanian political culture since the 1990s has been characterized by political conflict and a dysfunctional parliamentary life. On top of this comes widespread public dissatisfaction and a general lack of interest in politics. The general assumption is that a democratic political culture remains to be developed. Reviewing articles on public engagement in English-language journals and reports published in the recent decade, the overall picture is that research on Albanian political participation is poorly developed. There is a considerable amount of research and NGO reports dealing with formal political activity (electoral participation and party membership) and–in particular–studies of social movements, including protests and demonstrations. Other forms of participation are largely overlooked, like political consumption, social involvement, and civic engagement.

Baltic Barometer 2014. Public opinion data: representative samples of the adult population in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, including the Russian-speaking and Polish minorities.

The dataset provides important information about the mood in the three Baltic countries almost 25 years after the restoration of their independence and 10 years after their accession as full members of the European Union. It covers attitudes towards the past, current events and to some extent hopes for the future.

Baltic Barometer 2014. Opinionsdata: Representativa urval av den vuxna befolkningen i Estland, Lettland och Litauen (inklusive de rysktalande och de polska minoritetsgrupperna i dessa länder).

Datasetet ger viktig information om stämningen i de tre baltiska staterna nästan 25 år sedan de åter blivit självständiga och tio år efter att de blivit fullvärdiga medlemmar i EU. Det innehåller attityder till det förflutna, aktuella händelser, och i viss mån förhoppningar om framtiden.

Representative samples of populations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This is our follow-up survey (from 2014) in the three Baltic countries but without additional sampling of their respective Russian speaking minorities. Special focus is on the handling of the covid pandemic in the Baltic countries, but the survey also covers attitudes towards the EU, migration, democracy, and Russia against the backdrop of its aggression in Ukraine.

Representativa urval av befolkningen i Estland, Lettland och Litauen. Detta är vår uppföljande undersökning (från 2014) i de tre baltiska länderna, men denna gång utan ytterligare urval från de rysktalande minoriteterna i respektive land. Särskilt fokus ligger på hanteringen av covid-pandemin i de baltiska länderna, men undersökningen omfattar även attityder till EU, migration, demokrati samt Ryssland mot bakgrund av landets aggression i Ukraina.

Varför utvecklas vissa länder men inte andra till väl fungerande demokratier? Är det ekonomisk utveckling, en viss uppsättning institutioner, en gynnsam medborgarkultur, civilsamhället, stödjande internationella förutsättningar eller samarbetande politiska eliter som avgör? Kan alla länder i världen bli demokratier, eller är vissa stater dömda att för alltid styras av auktoritära regimer?

I denna uppdaterade tredje upplaga av Demokratiseringsprocesser presenteras och granskas de viktigaste teoretiska och empiriska bidragen inom forskningen om demokratiseringsprocesser. Författarna introducerar centrala begrepp som demokrati, modernisering, transition, konsolidering och diffusion, samt visar hur forskningen har utvecklats från den tidiga efterkrigstiden fram till idag. Även demokratins tillbakagång och olika varianter av samtida auktoritära styrelseskick diskuteras. Boken inleds med ett förord av professor Li Bennich-Björkman.

Demokratiseringsprocesser är särskilt lämplig för kurser i statsvetenskap, sociologi, internationella relationer, utvecklingsstudier, Europastudier samt freds- och konfliktforskning.

The COVID-19 pandemic altered the functioning of societies and people’s behavior in many areas of daily life. Studies of political participation during the pandemic do not constitute an extensive body of research, focusing mainly on Western European countries. Under these circumstances, we know very little about political participation in post-communist countries during the pandemic. This special issue aims to understand the dynamics of political participation in post-communist Europe through both qualitative and quantitative analyses. It proposes several innovative concepts and analytical frames that can be used to understand who participated, why, and with what consequences. This topic has often been surrounded by discussions referring to empirical matters much more than around general arguments and theoretical explanatory models. One of the special issue’s aims is to enrich the theoretical debate about political participation in new democracies and transition countries during the pandemic.

Public opinion data. Surveys were carried out in representative samples of inhabitants between 15 and 74 in the following countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia. Questions include trust in political institutions, support for democracy, attitudes to immigrants and refugees, attitudes to socioeconomic conditions.

Opinionsdata. Undersökningar genomfördes i ett representativt urval av befolkningen i åldern 15–74 år i följande länder: Bulgarien, Kroatien, Tjeckien, Ungern, Polen, Rumänien, Slovakien, Slovenien. Frågorna handlar bland annat om tillit till politiska institutioner, stöd till demokrati, attityder till invandrare och flyktingar, attityder till socioekonomiska förhållanden.

Opinion data from Hungary, Bulgaria and Latvia (including the Russian-speaking minority).

This survey focuses on relations with and attitudes towards Russia in three East European countries with a record of close ties with Russia – Latvia, Hungary, and Bulgaria. The survey was carried out against the backdrop of Russia´s annexation of Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. It may be the very first survey to tap East European reactions to Russia’s drastic attempt to redraw the map of post-war Eastern Europe. The 2015 Post-Crimea Survey asks many of the key questions in the Baltic Barometer questions about identity, democracy, and the European Union (Baltic Barometer 2014).

Opinionsdata från Ungern, Bulgarien och Lettland (inklusive den rysktalande minoriteten).

Denna undersökning fokuserar på relationen med och attityder till Ryssland i tre östeuropeiska länder som historiskt haft nära band till Ryssland, nämligen Lettland, Ungern och Bulgarien. Undersökningen gjordes mot bakgrund av Rysslands annektering av Krim och östra Ukraina. Det kan vara den första undersökningen som tar del av östeuropeiska reaktioner på Rysslands drastiska försök att rita om kartan för efterkrigstidens Östeuropa. 2015 års undersökningen Post-Crimea, tar upp många av nyckelfrågorna i Baltic Barometer, så som identitet, demokrati och Europeiska unionen (Baltic Barometer 2014).

Political participation increased and diversified in the post-communist world in the last decade. This may create great expectations in terms of societal impact. This Special Section seeks to understand the complexity of this picture by analyzing instances in which the promises of political participation reach boundaries in post-communist countries. It aims to achieve two theoretical and empirical objectives. It outlines several theoretical frameworks that can be used to understand who participates and why they do so, and to identify and explain various ways in which individuals engage in politics, what are their reasons and with what expectations. The articles in this Special Section cover a range of post-communist countries in the form of comparative perspectives across countries with contextualized case studies (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia and Hungary) and use both qualitative and quantitative analyses.