Lithuania's Quest for Self-Determination: Municipal Responses to National Emigration - Hardcover

by Thomas A. Bryer (Author), Egle Butkeviciene (Author), Rimantas Rauleckas (Author)

Self-determination in the European Union rests on the strength and skills of a country's representatives to manage and leverage relationships with other nations, and for individuals it rests on the ability to use autonomy and freedom wisely. To flourish, an individual must consciously determine their own path. Similarly, we can say a country can flourish. Self-determinism for a country is conditioned on the forces that facilitate or hinder its ability to succeed as a society. The same forces that can help a nation to flourish might also accelerate the decision to emigrate among a nation's people. This is the paradox, and it is the quest: national and individual self-determination, to allow choice for emigration but to have strength of culture, civics, and institutions to discourage it, or to encourage return migration for those who have left. In this book, we address this paradox and this quest using the case of Lithuania. More specifically, we examine how municipalities can and do respond to ongoing population shrinking due to emigration in Lithuania, the non-economic factors that facilitate decisions to emigrate, and the opportunities for local governments to shrink smartly or reverse shrinkage.

Author Biography

Thomas Andrew Bryer is professor of public administration at the University of Central Florida and in the Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities at Kaunas University of Technology.

Paulina Budryte is researcher and lecturer at Kaunas University of Technology.

Egle Vaidelyte is full professor, vice-dean for studies and a member of research group "Civil Society and Sustainability" at Kaunas University of Technology.

Egle Butkevičiene is full professor of Sociology and head of Committee for Political Science, Sociology and Public Governance Study Programs at Kaunas University of Technology.

Rimantas Rauleckas is associate professor and a member of "Public Governance" research group at Kaunas University of Technology.

Jolanta Vaičiūniene is head of the Municipal Training Centre and member of the research ground "Civil Society and Sustainable Development" at Kaunas University of Technology.