Values and Behaviour Patterns Supporting Civil Initiative Comparison of Estonian-speaking and Russian-speaking Inhabitants
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Lecturer, Tallinn University
The article provides an overview of the civil initiative values, behaviour patterns, and evaluations of the civil society of the inhabitants of Estonia.
More precisely, it compares the Estonian-speaking and Russian-speaking population on the basis of the study carried out by the Centre for Civil Society Study and Development of Tallinn University in the summer of 2012 „Values and Behaviour Patterns Supporting Civil Initiative in the Estonian Society 2011–2012”. Actively involving non-Estonian speakers in political decision-making processes that concern them is a way the state can show respect towards these members of the civil society. This does not mean that the public authorities today do not support the non-Estonian speaking groups. However, one of the main tasks that the public authorities are currently facing is the need to become more actively involving, cooperative, and to enter into a dialogue. A citizen who is involved and acknowledged takes on the democratic civil culture. In other words, they understand how democracy functions. If the civil initiative of minority groups is low or is evolving separately from the civil initiative of the rest of the society, this could take on undesired forms.