FEATURES OF POST-INTEGRATION DEMOCRATIZATION OF THE BALTIC STATES: ANALYSIS OF COMPLIANCE WITH THE EU POLITICAL COURSE

Abstract

The article proposes an authors’ assessment of the compliance of the Baltic States at the present stage with the EU requirements for member states. The task is to identify the differences between the policies of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and the initiatives of the EU based on several indicators (gender equality, tolerance). The authors argue that despite the obvious progress over the past three decades in political modernization, the consolidation of democracy for the Baltic States is a challenge: there are successes in certain areas of democratization, but in many areas, there is stagnation and even regression. It is noted that despite several problems in relations with the EU, the Baltic States demonstrate balance and do not tend to aggressively focus on national priorities, as is typical for some Central and Eastern European countries. For each of the Baltic States, the authors point out reasons that increase the risks of deteriorating quality of democracy and slow down pro-European post-integration democratization. Common characteristics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are growing support for populist, conservative, nationalist political actors; strengthening various ethnic stereotypes and social phobias (homophobia, migrantophobia, etc.); preserving the vestiges of the previous undemocratic political culture, which contradicts the EU's value paradigm. There are differences between the Baltic States, which affect the level of efficiency of post-integration democratization. It is emphasized that in all the Baltic States, the problems of the quality of democracy are directly related to the peculiarities of the political culture of population (the prevalence of the survival values over the values ​​of self-expression). It is concluded that the Baltic States do not yet fully meet EU standards, both institutionally and (especially) at the value level.