Civil Resistance to Populism: A Case of Cultural Assembly in Lithuania

Economic and cultural injustices are important in populist rhetoric because they cause frustration and distrust of mainstream political parties. Nevertheless, populist leaders may encounter mobilizations against themselves, partly due to their exclusionary ideas and violations of democratic norms. Populists’ practices may encourage resistance to populism from civil society actors if they are perceived as a threat to democracy. The focus of the study is protest mobilization against the practices of the populist party Nemuno Aušra in cultural policy, and the governing coalition‘s attempts to amend the law on public television. Based on in-depth interviews and participant observation, the study concludes that populist practices combined with the violation of democratic norms may trigger pro-democratic protests and foster high mobilization of supporters if the practices of a populist party are perceived as a threat to democracy. The highly creative pro-democratic actions allow for making an issue more visible by attracting national mass media attention. However, the collective actions may bring only partial success under conditions of unstable alliances among civil society actors and limited framing opportunities.