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. 

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.

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.

The chapter focuses specifically on civic engagement as a distinct mode of political activity among citizens in contemporary democracies. In the first section, we review existing definitions of “civic engagement” in the literature, noting in particular the lack of common notions of what it entails, as well as the critique against too wide or all-encompassing definitions. In the second section, we develop a conceptual discussion about civic engagement and political participation, and suggest a thin notion of civic engagement that may be measured in a straightforward way in empirical studies. In the third section, we turn to an overview of recent empirical works on civic engagement and democracy, highlighting key findings and suggesting avenues for further research.

Starting with the third decade of post-communism, the emergence of many anti-establishment parties in Central and Eastern Europe reshaped the political landscape. Political parties remain key actors through their functions of representation, but it is unclear how they are responding and adapting to recent challenges and developments. At the same time, the behavior of voters in such agitated times remains a puzzle. This special issue aims to outline several theoretical models of party and voter adaptation to political realities, and to identify and explain various ways in which anti-establishment parties promote their discourse and how voters respond to it.

The book covers direct democracy (referendums in particular), deliberative democracy practices and e-participation – forms which are salient in practice because they match the political realities of our time. Expert contributors show how the recent actions of ordinary citizens in several Central and Eastern European countries have challenged the contemporary political order, and grassroots movements and diverse forms of mobilization have challenged the notion of weak civil societies in the East. The empirical evidence presented attempts to deepen citizen involvement in political contexts sometimes quite different from the democratic political systems in the Western world. Using lessons from a still largely underexplored part of Europe, the book both complements and revises theoretical approaches, or complements empirical results in existing studies on democratic innovations.

Democratic innovations have recently gained momentum throughout the world. An increasing number of such practices takes place and coincides with a visible grow in the number of analyses focusing on the forms, functioning and effects of democratic innovations. In spite of these developments, a great deal of research on democratic innovations have largely neglected Central and Eastern Europe. This special issue of Contemporary Politics adds to the existing literature on democratic innovations by focusing on such attempts to deepen citizen participation in the political decision-making process in Central and Eastern Europe. Its attempt to expand the research agenda relies on new empirical evidence relative to three major forms of democratic innovations (direct democracy, deliberative democracy and citizens’ involvement with the aid of ICTs).

Drawing on an original 2014 public opinion survey, this paper offers a brief overview of contemporary political orientations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Looking specifically at performace-related system support and attitudes towards democracy, the paper demonstrates significantcross-national as well as ethnic attitudinal differences in the region. Support for democracy doesnot seem to be overly strong in the Baltic states, but the key finding is that public support for democracy is still comparatively stronger than support for authoritarian rule. This is tentatively goodnews: as long as support for non-democratic regime alternatives does not exceed support for ademocratic polity, democracy may be deemed to have sufficient legitimacy among citizens, andthe risk of a democratic breakdown in the Baltic states must be regarded as insignificant. 

The book is the first systematic and comparative effort to capture political culture in the Baltic countries, including political orientation and support for democracy. Revolving around public opinion data from the 1990s and onwards, including two recent surveys commissioned by the authors, the book takes stock of the political climate prevailing in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania a quarter of a century after reclaiming independence and fifteen years after becoming members of NATO and the EU. These three countries share the same geopolitical fate and many contemporary challenges, and yet each has been marked by their own transitions and struggles between nation building and European integration, Western and post-Soviet orientations, and past experience and future aspirations.

Drawing on public opinion surveys conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 2014–2015, the chapter updates the empirical basis of contemporary studies of public opinion and ethnic divides in the Baltic states. By contrasting political orientations among the ethnic majority populations to corresponding attitudes among the Russian-speaking minorities, the chapter demonstrates clear, albeit unsystematic cross-national attitudinal differences when it comes to regime performance and support for democracy. Inter-ethnic differences are also evident when it comes to external threats: the Baltic majority and minority populations perceive Russia in very different ways.