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Who Rules Šiauliai? A Case Study of an Emerging Urban Regime

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Terry D. Clark
Terry D. Clark*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Creighton University
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Abstract

Since the collapse of communism, much scholarship has examined the efforts by the countries of east central Europe and the former Soviet Union to develop democratic regimes. The majority of such studies have focused on institutional development and the problems of democratic transition at the national level. Although this focus is not at all surprising given the highly centralized political structures that have been the legacy of the communist past, the efficacy, indeed the ultimate success or failure of democratization, may well rest largely on the ability of local government to satisfy citizen demands. Local government is most directly involved in delivering the goods and services that affect people’s daily lives. Hence, citizens often form their judgments of political systems based on the performance of local government. To the degree that democracy depends on the loyalty of the citizenry, local government is important to the survival of democracy.

Who rules is the central question posed by scholars studying local government. This issue lies at the heart of democracy. While it is nowhere the case that citizens rule directly, in a democracy their preferences must have some effect on public policy.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , Spring 1997 , pp. 101 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1997

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References

Research for this article was supported in part by a grant from the International Research and Exchanges Board, with funds provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the United States Information Agency, and the United States Department of State, which administers the Russian, Eurasian, and East European Research Program (Title VIII).

1 See Friedgut, Theodore H., Political Participation in the USSR(Princeton, 1979);Google Scholar Hahn, Jeffrey W., Soviet Grassroots: Citizenship Participation in Local Soviet Government(Princeton, 1988).Google Scholar

2 See, for example, Friedgut, Theodore H.and Hahn, Jeffrey W., eds., Local Power and Post-Soviet Politics(Armonk, N.Y., 1994);Google Scholarand Hahn, Jeffrey W., ed., Democratization in Russia: The Development of Legislative Institutions(Armonk, N.Y., 1996).Google Scholar

3 Some of the best of these are contained in Bennett, Robert J., Local Government and Market Decentralization: Experiences in Industrialized, Developing, and Former Eastern Bloc Countries(New York, 1994).Google Scholar

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5 See Dahl, Robert, Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City(New Haven, 1961).Google Scholar

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11 Ibid.

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15 Among those noting the struggle among elites for control over the economy in post-Soviet Russia are Jeffrey W. Hahn, “Reforming Post-Soviet Russia: The Attitudes of Local Politicians,” in Friedgut and Hahn, eds., Local Power;and McAuley, Mary, “Politics, Economics, and Elite Realignment in Russia: A Regional Perspective,” Soviet Economy 8(1992): 46–88.Google Scholar

16 See, for instance, Laisvoji ekonominė zona (Šiauliai, 1994).

17 The mformation was provided by Jonas Bartkus, head of the Information Department, Šiauliai City Administration, May 1995.x

18 Verslo Pianos(Šiauliai, March 1995).

19 Šiaulių, Kraštas, 20 February 1995.

20 Ibid.

21 Šiaulių Kraštas, 12 April 1995.

22 Interview with Jonas Bartkus, 24 May 1996. Confirmed in an electronic mail exchange in March 1997.

23 Interview with Laima Peleckiene, reporter, Lietuvos Rytas, 23 May 1995.

24 Voting statistics maintained by the Information Department of the Šiauliai City Administration indicate that the older generations were far more likely to vote in virtually all of the city’s voting precincts.

25 Šiaulių Kraštas, 22 March 1995.

26 Interview with Valentina Šimkuvienė, dean of the Philological Faculty, Šiauliai Pedagogical Institute, 31 May 1995.

27 Meeting of the Zokniai Airport Committee, 25 March 1996.

28 Interview with Valentina Šimkuvienė, 19 March 1996.

29 Interview with Valentina Šimkuvienė, 31 May 1995.

30 This is most decidedly the judgment of Dailis Barakauskas, director, Šiauliai Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as expressed in an interview with the author, 19 May 1995.

31 Ibid.

32 Interview with Arvydas Salda, 23 May 1995, and with Mayor Alfredas Lankauskas, 25 May 1995.

33 Interview with Dailius Barakauskas, 6 June 1996.

34 Šiauliai Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry, April 1995.

35 Šiaulių, Kraštas, 5 April 1995.

36 During an interview on 8 May 1995, Vincas Laurutis, a Mūsų Miestas— Musu Namai City Council member, indicated that strong evidence supported the contention that Landsbergis and former prime minister and Conservative Party member, Gediminas Vagnorius, had insisted that Lankauskas be the party’s candidate for mayor. In a subsequent interview on 25 May 1995, Mayor Lankauskas did not deny these rumors.

37 Interview with Mayor Lankauskas, 25 May 1995.

38 Complaints about not only the economic but the political competence of the ruling coalition were aired by representatives of business in a meeting that I hosted of small businesses on 16 May 1996. The director of the Chamber of Commerce also frequently complained about the City Council’s lack of competence.

39 Sėjūnas expressed his concerns to me in an interview on 8 March 1996. He also published his concerns in Lietuvos Aidas, 13 June 1996. For a full description of the political storm created by the article, see Terry D. Clark, “Free Trade Zone Project Brings Out Regional Rivalries,” Transition 2(9 August 1996): 52-55.

40 See, for example, Šiaulių Kraštas, 17 April 1996.

41 Šiaulių. Kraštas, 1 April 1995.

42 Lankauskas responded to an anonymous letter challenging the project in the national press. See Šiaulių, Kraštas, 21 April 1995 and 27 April 1995.

43 Lietuvos Rytas, 3 July 1996.

44 Interview with Arvydas Salda, 23 May 1995.

45 Šiaulių. Naujienos, 26 June 1996.

46 See Rustow, Dankwart A., “Transitions to Democracy: Toward a Dynamic Model,” Comparative Politics 2(1970): 337–63;CrossRefGoogle Scholarand Przeworski, Adam, Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America(Cambridge, Eng., 1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47 Interview with Igor’ Kolesnikov, chairman of the Organization of National Minorities, 7 July 1996.