On the Weakness of the Political Left in Lithuania

Abstract

The article provides a brief account of the political left in Lithuania against the historical background of the socio-economic transformation of a post-Soviet society. It focuses on the main political actors on the left, primarily on the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP), and highlights their ideological positions, social base, and electoral performance. The chapter argues that the absence of an influential political left in Lithuania is both a result of the specific context of post-Soviet transformation and of the position of the moderate centre left LSDP as the biggest actor on the Lithuanian left.