Pilietinės visuomenės vaidmuo priimant šeimos politikos sprendimus

Abstract

There is a lack of research in the sphere of family policy formation in Lithuania. The goal of the present article is to analyse the problems of the participation of the civil sector in family policy decision making. The article discusses the concept of New Public Management and its emphasis on the dialogue between civil society and government. The author of the article presents the results of expert interviews, focusing on the problems of family policy formation, which were carried out in 2006 and repeated in 2010. The experts represented the elite of the field of family policy formation: policy makers and researchers. In general, the analysis of the experts’ attitude shows that Lithuania is characterized by “low” citizenship, evidenced by citizens’ passiveness, and traditional participation displayed by formal participation of the non-governmental sector in decision making as well as the government’s mistrust of nongovernmental organizations. Active participation of civil society in family policy decision making brings family issues up-todate. Low citizenship and poor participation of nongovernmental organizations, as well as domination of the Church and catholic organizations, determine the disproportionate representation of interests and burden family policy formation in Lithuania.