Workers, Capitalists and the Results of the Riigikogu Elections of 2011
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Lecturer in International and Comparative Politics, Tallinn University
Estonian elections in 2011 were held under the conditions of high unemployment (16.9%) and rather small inflation (2.7%); the real growth of Estonian GDP had turned positive in 2010, after two years of decrease.
The article analyses the economic dimensions of election results, showing that “parties of work” have somewhat gained from unemployment, a link with “parties of capital” is unclear or missing. Perceivances of economic situation of Estonia and personal economic situation with respect of objective economic indicators (unemployment, GDP, inflation) are analysed; the positive/negative perceivances seem to correlate with GDP and somewhat with unemployment, there seems to be almost no correlation with inflation rate; Estonian electorate could be characterized as “having a general sense of economic conditions”. The positive change of GDP in 2010 might have favored the ruling coalition of two “parties of capital”. High unemployment seems to be one of the key issues behind the almost doubled number of votes (in comparison to 2007) of Social Democrats, an opposition “party of work”.