| Siim Kallas | Presentation in the Riigikogu at the 1st Reading of the Draft State Budget Act 2000 |
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| Kalle Jürgenson | State Budget 2000, What and Why? |
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| Olev Raju | Commentaries on the State Budget 2000 |
| Madis Võõras | Estonia on the Way to Full Membership of the European Space Agency |
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| Ene Ergma | Estonia Has Become a Space State |
| Urve Läänemets | A Good Teacher Should Be Ready to Learn Also from the Pupils |
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| Külli Eichenbaum | Using the Local Peculiarities of Old Võromaa |
Thoughts on Parliamentarism, Democracy and Trends of the Riigikogu. Ideas, Myths and Practice of the Administrative Reform. Parliamentary Culture of Communication. State Efforts to Combat Drugs. Privatization of Narva Power Plants.
On Intelligibility of Laws. Private Law. MPs in Political Crossfire. Legal Consciousness of Estonian People. Polish-Estonian Relations in the 1990s. On Euro-debate in the Estonian Media. Third Sector: Communication between Civic Society and the State. Reflections on Baltic Cooperation.
Summaries of articles are in English.
The Editor-in-Chief discusses some conceptual issues of the Riigikogu Toimetised (RiTo, for short) and some major topics covered in the RiTo 2. To start with, he characterizes Estonian Parliamentary Democracy as a nice human-faced creature with two dissimilar legs.
The Deputy Speaker of the Riigikogu, Siiri Oviir, who is also a representative of the opposition parties in the three-member board of the Riigikogu, focuses in her article on the role of the Parliament in law-making and on the issues of parliamentary control, supervision and autonomy.
This comment distinguishes between two ideal types of democratic thinking – majoritarian and consensus democracy – on the basis of Arend Lijphart Patterns of Democracy (1999).
The present article discusses the parliamentary culture in the Republic of Estonia in the 1920s-1930s as compared with the parliamentary culture of the 1990s after the regaining of independence.
The article seconds the essay by Prof. Taagepera by stating that a high level of democracy and parliamentary culture is based upon the general political awareness and traditions of the whole nation.
In order to raise administrative capacity and implement the principles of modern public administration, a “tiger leap” is needed that would be qualitatively different from the “natural” development that has occurred until now. Thus, the changes initiated by the coalition agreement to improve the functioning of public administration, can be called an all-round comprehensive reform.
The author considers administrative reform in Estonia to be a necessity. Ten years of regained independence is sufficient to start improving the present administrative organisation where it is needed and retain what has proven useful in practice.
Administrative reform affects every citizen and therefore it has to be accepted by the majority of the political parties represented in the Riigikogu.
The article recognises drug consumption as having become a serious social problem in Estonia. The author tries to present an alternative view to a slowly proliferating opinion that Estonian youth in the 21st century cannot any longer live without drugs as drugs are seen as having become an obligatory component in the search for enjoyment.
The current Estonian drug policy is based on the “Alcoholism and drug prevention programme for 1997-2007” approved by the Government in 1997. The prevention of drug-abuse and combating of drug-related crime is one of the priorities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The drug problem is a relatively new phenomenon in Estonia although already in 1930 the Republic of Estonia as a member of the League of Nations had acceded to the opium convention and passed a law on import, export and sale of opium and other narcotic substances and preparations.
The present government is unable to understand the real significance of privatising the Narva Power Plants and the expected consequences for the Estonian economy. Allowing all strategic infrastructure enterprises in Estonia to fall under foreign control would in essence mean giving up Estonian independence and sovereignty.
The Government of the Republic authorised Prime Minister Mart Laar and the Minister of Economic Affairs Mihkel Pärnoja to present to the Riigikogu the conditions and background of the contract with NRG Generating Holdings B.V., which is a hundred per cent affiliate of NRG Energy Inc., to acquire a 49 per cent interest in the Narva Power Plants PLC.
On 28 August, the discussion of the issue of national importance continued that had been suspended after Prime Minister Mart Laar had made his speech and answered questions.
The present article explores the reasons, prerequisites, conditions and the expected results of the sale of minority interest in the Narva Power Plants PLC.
The question whether our laws are understandable was already raised by the VIII Riigikogu, and it still remains topical.
The authors agree with the view of Ms Maret Maripuu, Member of the Riigikogu, that in a democratic country laws cannot be written in a way that only professional lawyers would understand them. However, law should not be understood as a command.
The article discusses the peculiarities, factors and impacts of politics as a regulatory mechanism in society. The author explores the preconditions, risks and possibilities of politics as a voluntary and scientifically founded systematic activity.
In which areas of their activity do members of the Estonian Riigikogu focus most? How important do they rank the relations with their party as opposed to their voters, electoral district or private interest groups, and do these activities compete with or complement each other?
The author is convinced that diminishing the state’s role and improving the exercise of the remaining functions should take place simultaneously by areas of government and various fields. Fulfilling of the “core functions” should be reformed on the basis of principles that are in particular suitable for Estonia.
Many, if not most of the decision-makers, have developed certain understanding and beliefs in relation with the issues of the administrative reform. At the same time, their ideas have often developed without a deeper analysis.
The article aims to remind or inform the reader of the fact that there is no abstract ideal size of a local government unit and that even dwarf-size rural municipalities need not be ineffective. The central idea in determining the ideal size is rather the principle of suitability.
The article deals with the problems of Euro-debate in the Estonian media. In the context of EU negotiations and the possible accession, the Estonian means of mass communication have two different, but equally important tasks.
The article mainly analyses the political attitudes of the Estonian population on the basis of assessments in public opinion polls, as well as concrete participation in political activity. The central theoretical notions discussed in the article are specific and general political support, trust, and legitimacy of the power.
The social and market polling company Saar Poll has, since 1996, been carrying out a public opinion trend survey “The State and the People”, dealing with the problems related to the work of the Riigikogu. The survey has been conducted at the request of the Riigikogu Chancellery.
The aim of harmonising European civil law is to reduce differences between legal systems in order to guarantee a uniform European economic space and legal culture.
The necessity to reform the pension system becomes more pressing due to the ageing of the population. In relation with the pension system, one of the critical outputs of ageing is the decreasing of the workers-pensioners ratio, meaning the rise of the average number of people maintained by one worker.
Following up the article by Prof. Alari Purju, the author discusses public opinion towards a compulsory collecting pension.
The article provides a short overview of how the different phenomena treated under the notion of organised crime in Estonia could be classified, and to what extent indirect measures arising from more systematic economic legislation could help to combat smuggling and related organised crime.
The short article explores the current problems of the Estonian education policy within a wider public policy context. As education policy is one of the areas of public policy, the state welfare model and the main features of the administrative set-up of the state determine also the organisation and principles of the system of education.
The present article deals with the situation of rural schools, the forecast for the coming years and financing of schools from the state and local government budgets.
The article pays attention to the need for cooperation between all areas of fight against drug addiction, and sets out to compare the efficiency of this cooperation.
Estonia and Poland are linked through centuries-long good relations, sympathies and numerous mutual interests, which with their rises and setbacks have by today created not only a very good basis for cooperation on a new level (European Union and NATO), but also, already during the less than ten years that have passed since the reestablishment of Estonia’s independence Poland has become one of our most important partners.
Civil society has an increasingly important role to fulfil nowadays. Relations between the state and the third sector become increasingly more formal, different agreements and memorandums of cooperation are concluded.
The article describes, on the basis of a survey carried out among members of non-profit associations and a similar public opinion poll, the current situation and development possibilities of cooperation between the state, local authorities and non-profit organisations in Estonia.
A discussion on the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has been initiated in Estonia.
The author gives a short overview of this year’s annual conference of the International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR) held on 5-8 July in Dublin, Ireland, on the topic “Third Sector: for Whom and for What?”
Six comments by bon-profit Associations on the Cooperation Memorandum of Estonian Political Parties and Third Sector Umbrella Organisations
The overview of the activities of the European Parliament has been compiled mainly on the basis of the information obtained from http://www.europarl.eu.int.
In his article, the author looks at the cooperation between Baltic states from its very beginning – the end of World War I, pointing out the possibility of the emergence of even five Baltic states, who would have included also Poland and Finland. Yet, actual Baltic cooperation was not born at that time because the above countries sensed their interests and risks too differently. As a result, in World War II they all had to pay a very high price. The author asks whether this was an inevitable fact.
In 1925, from 12-22 May, the parliamentary delegation of the Estonian Riigikogu, led by August Jürman, the deputy chairman of the board of the II Riigikogu, visited the Polish Sejm.
In the life of the Estonian Parliament, an important change has taken place in 2000 – the Government of the Republic moved out of the Toompea castle into a building at Rahukohtu 3 on Toompea Hill, and thus the separation of legislative and executive power has been effected also on the physical and geographical level.
This is an introduction to publications compiled by the National Library, which reflect the activities of the Riigikogu or are necessary for parliamentary service, in comparison with similar publications in the Nordic countries.
This year the Parliamentary Information Centre of the National Library began to collect data about the graduation theses defended on the topics of law in Estonian higher educational institutions and creating a relevant database.
The Internet, which is one of the most important sources of information today, is a quick and convenient means for political parties to introduce themselves.