“If not me, who?”: An analysis of political ambition amongst first-time elected and aspiring millennial politicians in Lithuania

Abstract

The primary aim of this study was to investigate how and why young people enter politics in Lithuania. The research observing youth political ambition tends to focus on lack of ambition, alternative strategies of political involvement (such as protest), and to a lesser extent, budding and expressive ambition to run for office. While the majority of the latter studies focus on established Western democracies, this paper seeks to provide some insight into political motivation in the post-Soviet democracies, using Lithuania as a case study. This qualitative study is based on semi-structured interviews with 10 first-time elected and 7 aspiring politicians, educated in democratic Lithuania. The key findings indicate that family influence on political motivation is only a minor factor in the decision-making process to enter politics. At the same time, being exposed to a civically engaging school or youth group environment plays a significant role in nurturing participants’ political ambition. Two major routes to entering politics emerged – those who were more strategic about the future in politics could be described as ‘self-starters’; and those whose motivation was sparked by elite recruitment, usually by a senior political actor, already participating in politics or considering candidacy. The analysis of the interviews also uncovered a clear trend in disassociation with party membership and a growing appetite for the nonpartisan path to candidacy. This is particularly vivid in municipal elections, in which a new vehicle to enter politics - public electoral committee – has taken a firm place and allows politically ambitious millennials to enter the office without a party stamp.