Title: The assessment of sustainability in political environment of balanced social field: possibilities of electoral method

Authors: Valdas Petrulis, Paulius Kavaliauskas

Addresses: Department of Geography and Land Management, Vilnius University, Ciurlionio 21, Vilnius, LT-03101, Lithuania. ' Department of Geography and Land Management, Vilnius University, Ciurlionio 21, Vilnius, LT-03101, Lithuania

Abstract: The conceptualisation of sustainability is one of the main tasks in multidisciplinary research. The methodology of the assessment of sustainability for political environment is presented in this paper. The structure of the methodology includes several steps to achieve the theoretical fullness. Political environment is conceivable as one of the main environments in the theory of balanced social field. According to the sense of balanced social field, there are distinguished nine antinomies in the political environment. Each antinomy is revealed by categories of political sustainability. The sustainability of political environment mostly is measured in electoral data. The electoral method is preferable because of its simplicity and universality for evaluation of political sustainability. Suggested theory is illustrated by the example of geopolitical sustainability patterns in Lithuania.

Keywords: political sustainability; balanced social field; political environment; electoral methods; Lithuania; sustainable development; geopolitical sustainability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2008.017897

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2008 Vol.7 No.1, pp.63 - 77

Published online: 21 Apr 2008 *

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