No. 7

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Estonian Politicians on Nation and Power

11 June 2003

Studies

RiTo No. 7, 2003

  • Annika Tamra

    Uppsala University, master's student of political science

The article focuses on Estonia’s political elite’s vision of politics and society, in the context of the media discussion of the growing distance between people and politicians.

My interest in the culture of the political elite was piqued by the fact that trust in Estonia seemed very low compared to Sweden. I was led to interview 33 Estonian MPs in Sweden as part of my master’s work in Uppsala. I divided my work into four parts – vision of politics, vision of politicians, vision of the people and vision of power. It emerged that the biggest difference with Sweden when it came to the discussion about the nature of politics was the relative insignificance of ideology. In general, the third of the body of the Riigikogu that I was able to interview had a very serious attitude toward their work. To improve the reputation of politicians and politics, politicians must simply communicate more with the people and educate the people better politically.

Full article in Estonian

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