DEMOCRATIC RESILIENCE IN LITHUANIA AND THE EU: EXAMINING THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between civil society, civic participation, and democratic resilience in Lithuania within a European Union (EU) comparative frame. A mixed-methods design integrates a nationally representative public survey (N = 1,255; May–July 2024) with indicators from the EU Resilience Dashboards (data through 2022). To substantiate inferences, we report an ordinal association matrix (Kendall’s τ-b) alongside a compact logistic model with average marginal effects. Readiness to engage in active protest is positively associated with civic engagement (+4.9 percentage points per one-step increase on a 0–3 scale) and with perceiving a citizens–government conflict (+12.1 pp), and declines modestly with age (−0.19 pp per year); the association with institutional trust is small and only marginal. In EU comparison, Lithuania ranks above the EU average on the geopolitical dimension, around the average on digital, and below the average on social-economic and green dimensions. We argue that cultivating civic habits and ensuring credible channels for voice constitute proximate (micro-level) levers of democratic resilience, while addressing capacity shortfalls identified by the dashboards operates at the meso/macro level. The study contributes an integrated micro–macro account of democratic resilience in a geopolitically exposed EU member state and clarifies where policy leverage is likely to be most effective.

Keywords: democratic resilience, civil society, civic participation, Lithuania, EU resilience, public trust.