The world is changing. The financial and economic crisis has forced people to abandon their habitual spend-use-and-dispose behaviour reminiscent of a hamster in a wheel.
| 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 |
Estonians future in a changing world. Transition to euro in Estonia. Elections. Rural life. The European Union. Tax morale. The Constitution. Involvement in parliament. Immigration policy. Penal law. The parliament’s foreign relations. Trends in information search.
Summaries of articles are in English.
The world is changing. The financial and economic crisis has forced people to abandon their habitual spend-use-and-dispose behaviour reminiscent of a hamster in a wheel.
The tenth issue of Riigikogu Toimetised (RiTo) was supposed to be published in December 2004.
The idea behind the publication was conceived and made a reality as a sideline, just like many institutions of the Estonian state were built, both in our era and before our time.
The Riigikogu Toimetised conservation circle on 20 November discussed the transition to the common currency of the European Union, the euro, which Estonia firmly wants to join in the coming years. The participants in the conversation circle were Estonian Minister of Finance Jürgen Ligi, former Minister of Finance and current member of the board of Tallink Hotels group OÜ TLG Hotell Aivar Sõerd, Eesti Pank monetary policy department head Ülo Kaasik, and Estonian Development Fund adviser Heido Vitsur. The debate was moderated and summarized by RiTo editor-in-chief Helle Ruusing.
The writer discusses whether we have a moral right to leave problems we have not succeeded in coping with for future generations to resolve. We cannot even foresee what will happen in the next 100 years, yet nuclear waste remains hazardous for tens or hundreds of thousands of years. Our geographical location is immutable as well, and geography will determine more than politics in the long run.
Even though the organization of elections in Estonia is based primarily on the enthusiasm of the election organizers who do this work as a additional job, we have managed in two decades to complete the building of a reliable and modern electoral system that is capable from an information technology and technical standpoint of making use of lists of registered voters.
*The article is based on the report of the author delivered at the conference „Elections and Governing in Information Society” on 20 November 2009. See also Maandi, K. (1995). Elections and Referendums in Estonia 1989–1995.
The writer recalls that in late 2008, the Riigikogu began discussing possible amendment of the Local Government Council Election Act.
The writer believes that the 2009 local elections attested to how flexibly politicians were able to adapt to a changing situation.
The writer believes that things have gone fairly well for Estonia as a member state in its first five years in the European Union.
The question as to whether agriculture and rural life are capable of developing independently or whether they are kept afloat only by subsidies pervades every discussion held on the topic of rural life and agriculture.
Everybody wants their daily bread and other sources of sustenance to be healthful and made in a way that is responsible with regard to the environment.
This article provides a short overview of some of the problems that have arisen in applying punishment in practice.
In most cases, tax compliance is analyzed using economic models and relevant economic interpretations.
*Peer-reviewed article.
As the fundamental principles of the Constitution have a regulatory effect – they are binding – the need for finding them is undisputed.
The amendments made to the French Constitution in July 2008, consisting of a modernisation of the state institutions, are probably the most fundamental ever to have taken place in France during the Fifth Republic – that is, since the current French Constitution of 1958 was adopted – because of the unprecedented number (47 articles have been either added or modified) and scope of the amendments.
Every country has a sovereign right to shape its own immigration policy. Each country has to decide which aliens it allows on its territory and for what reason. By joining international organizations and entering into foreign treaties, under which the state assumes obligations toward individuals, a country places restrictions on its sovereign right to decide its immigration policy.
The article analyzes 30 local government development plans in Estonia.
This article provides an analysis of the development of Estonia’s system of local government up to the current time.
Adult education has been defined as one of the key components in raising the competitiveness of the economic environment of the European Union at the general and national level.
The basis of the article is an overview, written during the time the author was working in the law and analysis department of the Riigikogu Chancellery, of the involvement of NGOs and associations of companies in the writing of draft legislation on Riigikogu committees.
The article treats the status and development of internal audits in Estonia on the basis of assessments by practitioners and compares the process to that of other European countries, above all the Nordic countries of Sweden, Norway and Finland. The article relies on research conducted in autumn 2006 by an international working group of researchers and funded by the Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation, entitled The Common Body of Knowledge (CBOK 2006), as well as on the data from the CBOK Europe study. A selection was made from the significant aspects of internal audits.
A study conducted among officials confirms that knowledge of the influence, interests and coalition readiness of European Union Member States is one of the primary success factors for representation of Estonia’s interests in Europe.
The main objective of the article is to identify untapped potential for shaping Estonia’s higher educational policy offered by databases of research studies in the Estonian Research Information System ETIS and the Estonian Social Science Data Archive (ESSDA).
The article is based on Marek Puust’s master thesis, “The Priorities of Funding Estonian Civil Society”, and recent developments in re-arranging the funding mechanisms for civil organizations in Estonia.
The article compares the goals of two national strategies – the Estonian Civil Society Development Conceptand an addition from this spring, the concept for restructuring state budgetary funding of civil society – with the views of ministries and representatives of the political elite.
In foreign relations, the competency of Estonian parliament as a legislative body can be thought of as consisting of two elements. First, legal competence of parliament, which is set forth in the Constitution and legislation and international legal acts governing foreign relations (conventions, treaties, operating principles of international organizations), and political competence, which develops through the distribution of functions between government agencies.
The article gives an overview of new technologies and possibilities of information search.