The Last Bastion of Unitarism? Local Institutions, Party Politics, and Ramifications of EU Accession in Lithuania
A Japanese political scientist specializing in the former Soviet republics examines the system of regions taking shape within Lithuania. Driven in part by EU accession requirements, the current system is compared with the Soviet past and with that of Russia, Poland, and the Czech Republic. The paper, based substantially on field work in 2001, argues that emergence of the country's most recognizable and operational regions, second-tier municipalities, has bolstered the competitive character of Lithuanian politics. A detailed analysis of elections of deputies to municipal councils, and subsequent election of mayors to head those councils, demonstrates patterns of coalition building designed to maintain a power balance among local party organizations. Three case studies demonstrate divergent contexts within which a national trend—the rise and fall of Lithuania's bipolar party system—is played out. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H11, H77, O18. 1 figure, 5 tables, 42 references.
Zentralisierung als Paradox: Europäisierung in den baltischen Staaten?
Matsuzato stellte 2007 in einem Artikel die Frage, ob Litauen „The Last Bastion of Unitarism“(Matsuzato 2007) sei. Dieser Beitrag wird genau dieser Frage nachgehen und zeigen,dass in allen drei baltischen Staaten trotz Europaisierung, die mit einer Forderung der Regionalisierung einhergeht, der unitarische Charakter der baltischen Staaten weiter gestarkt wurde. Wie zu zeigen sein wird, hat die starke Betroffenheit der baltischen Staaten von der weltweiten Wirtschaftskrise diese Effekte – ebenfalls u. a. bedingt durch die Politik der EU – noch zusatzlich verstarkt.
Two weddings and a lawsuit: Marriage litigation in fourteenth-century Portugal
Based on one of the few surviving records of marriage cases brought before
 ecclesiastical courts in fourteenth-century Portugal, this article offers a rare
 glimpse of marriage practice in a small village in a remote corner of Western Europe
 and the complex ties that bound its inhabitants and which secular and ecclesiastical
 authorities sought to regulate. Clear parallels can be drawn with the patterns of
 marriage litigation observed in England and Northern France, but evidence also
 suggests that royal legislation played an important part in the resolution of marital
 disputes and in the shaping of conjugal behaviour.