Debating Agenda Items in Lithuanian Parliament: Politicization of Policy Issues in 1990-2020

In the literature of political agenda-setting it goes almost without saying that putting issues on the agenda of public institutions politicizes them. However, studies of (de)politicization present more nuanced view of issue politicization. In the context of parliament, Palonen (2021) distinguishes (among five, in total) procedural and rhetorical forms of politicization in parliament. The first is related to putting issues on agenda and the latter concerns debating issues on agenda, or exploring their strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, absence of debate on an issue may indicate its non-political nature (in some particular context), even if political decisions on this issue are made. This paper aims to analyze trends of issue politicization in Lithuanian parliament during the period of 1990-2020. First, it looks into which types of issues on parliament agenda were politicized more than others. We identify agenda issues as politicized, when they are debated by multiple MPs, including MPs representing opposition. In order to classify agenda issues we employ the classification of agenda topics developed by the Comparative Agendas Project (see www.comparativeagendas.net). Second, paper investigates trends of issue politicization and depoliticization, that is, how some issue become politicized and then depoliticized in Lithuanian parliament during the period under study.