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No. 34, December 2016

Projection into future. A new beginning for the Estonian National Museum. Tõnis Lukas

Development of the modern national system of innovation in Estonia with the support of people’s education and community house. Egge Kulbok-Lattik

Presidential elections – Expectations and reality. Rein Toomla

Estonia’s security on the border of free world. Marko Mihkelson

Summaries of articles are in English.

Full articles in Estonian

Editor-in-Chief’s Column

  • Culture is the sum of all (after Mihhail Lotman)

    To simplify Lotman’s idea, the culture exists in all forms of human activities. When our forefathers built their log houses, they used manual construction methods that had developed over a certain period. They did it without thinking that some of these houses would be declared heritage sites one day, or that some might even be moved to the Open Air Museum. It is only since the 19th century National Awakening that we have a professional national culture, an idea that we took from the Germans. So we have a popular culture and a national culture, and one way or another we carry both inside us.

RiTo conversation circle

Focus

Politics

  • Presidential elections – Expectations and reality

    14 December 2016

    Politics

    RiTo No. 34, 2016

    In 2016, the President of Estonia was for the first time elected at extraordinary elections. 25 years ago the authors of the Constitution of Estonia were convinced that they had managed to develop a mechanism pursuant to which the political parties have to cooperate as effectively as they can in order that the candidate would win the support of two thirds of the members of the parliament at the elections in the Riigikogu. If the political parties fail to achieve that, the elections would transfer to the electoral college, a body specially formed for the purpose of electing the President, where the required quota would be smaller, only the majority of the electoral college members who participated in voting. Namely this low quota required in the electoral college gave the authors of the Constitution the assurance that the President would be elected during the regular elections.

  • Estonia’s security on the border of free world

    14 December 2016

    Politics

    RiTo No. 34, 2016

    The geographical position and smallness of Estonia are a great possibility and at the same time also an inevitable challenge for us. Estonia is the smallest country in Europe and in the whole Western world that has managed to survive and succeed in spite of its political-geographical location.

  • Image of Estonia in Russia’s online-media in 2015 from security perspective

    14 December 2016

    Politics

    RiTo No. 34, 2016

    Today, media is ever more actively and effectively used as an instrument for exerting influence on public opinion and political decisions. Non-democratic countries like Russia use media as means of propaganda in shaping ideological attitudes. Russia has also considerably increased military activities near the Baltic States, and continuously declared NATO its main enemy. Information field that distorts reality may damage the cohesion of different groups of population and create instability in the society, therefore Estonia should pay more attention to attacks targeted against the cohesion of the society, and develop psychological defence and resistance against anti-Estonian propaganda activities. In order to ensure the security of the society and the state and the sense of security of the people, and to prevent crises and increase confidence in the activities of the state, it is necessary to develop the psychological defence of the state more than it has been done so far. From the point of view of Estonia’s strategic communication and psychological defence, it is important to know how Estonia is depicted in Russian media. Unfortunately it has been assessed only empirically.

Studies

Varia

  • Right of security of apartment association

    14 December 2016

    Varia

    RiTo No. 34, 2016

    At the beginning of 2014, the Riigikogu passed the Apartment Ownership and Apartment Associations Act, which was prepared in the Ministry of Justice and passed several rounds of coordination.

  • The Republic of Estonia 100 – Party or celebration?

    14 December 2016

    Varia

    RiTo No. 34, 2016

    In 2018, one hundred years have passed since the establishing of the Republic of Estonia. It is without doubt the most important anniversary in the history of the country, and it concerns all people who live in Estonia. At the time when the society is split by world-view issues, the global security situation has become tense and economic insecurity grows, celebrating an anniversary gives the country and its people a good opportunity to find again their common ground, to tell the story of sovereignty in a modern language, to initiate new activities with future perspective, to enhance belief in oneself and in one’s country.

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