- The survey presents the Democratic Sustainability Barometer, an index comprising four intermediary indexes. They measure different dimensions of public perception of democracy, namely the perception of elements of liberal democracy, the support for the active defense of democracy by means of protests, satisfaction with democracy in Lithuania and trust in Lithuania’s state institutions.
- The value of the first Democratic Sustainability Barometer Index is 53.5. This indicates a theoretically above-average democratic sustainability on the sociological level. The index is negatively affected by distrust in political institutions and the rather prevalent dissatisfaction with the way democracy works in Lithuania. This is likely related to social expectations for democracy.
- The survey also calculates the Index of Resilience to Eastern Propaganda, comprising three intermediary indexes that measure the perception of threat from Russia and the resilience to economic and political narratives pushed by the propaganda of the authoritarian regimes in Russia and China. The average value of this index is 58.8, indicating an above-average resilience to Eastern propaganda among Lithuanian residents.
- The perception of threat from Russia is fairly high. Lithuanian residents’ resilience is the lowest with respect to economic narratives, in which the authoritarian regimes in the East extol the benefits of cooperating with them. With that said, a separately conducted survey suggests that in the end, Lithuanians are more inclined to cooperate with democracies than authoritarian regimes.
Democratic Sustainability Barometer 2022
Summary
Mažvydas Jastramskis is an Associate Professor at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University. His research focuses on electoral behaviour, political institutions and democratic issues.
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