| 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 |
The role of Estonian NGOs in policy-making processes has become increasingly visible in recent years. Due to that the questions related to their internal democracy are gaining importance. A recent study by Praxis Center for Policy Studies explored how internal democracy in NGOs works and how the members are involved within NGOs to obtain input for policy-making. The article presents the main conclusions of that research.
Spending of public money is an issue that has always been of interest to the citizens. And they are also the ones who feel the results of decisions most clearly. Participatory budgeting has been implemented in order to involve the citizens in the drafting of local budget.
Squatting matches the need and the opportunity.
The Estonian Internet Community emerged as the result of the domain reform, and by today it is a 100-member publicly acknowledged organisation that has been active for nearly three years.
The article provides an overview of the civil initiative values, behaviour patterns, and evaluations of the civil society of the inhabitants of Estonia.
The purpose of social entrepreneurship is to satisfy an acute social need by the profit received from the sale of goods and services. It may also be said that social entrepreneurship is an instrument for increasing the viability and positive social impact of citizens’ associations.
The article deals with the background system, results and political recommendations of the idea project „Portrait of Citizens’ Society” (“Kodanikeühiskonna portree”, KYPO).
An ecovillage is an integrated and ecologically sustainable human community that can exist both in a city and in the country.
The article gives an overview of two recent studies on philanthropy in Estonia, one about volunteering and the other about charitable giving.
Standing advisory councils are a cooperation form with quite a long tradition for a country like Estonia; the first such advisory bodies were established already in the early 1990s.
People who live in rural areas find that the organisers of the life in Estonia and the decision-makers should more often go to rural municipalities and villages to see the circumstances and to listen to people, give advice on the spot and organise information days and trainings there.
The purpose of the article is to give an overview of the creation of the elections platform of the umbrella organisation, the Federation of Estonian Student Unions, communication with political parties during the Riigikogu campaign, and follow-up activities.
For Estonian non-profit associations, participation in the formation of the life of the society means for the most part acting at a local level and cooperation contacts with local governments and other non-profit associations.
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.
By decision at the cabinet meeting, the Government of the Republic has approved the strategy, introduced by the Minister for Regional Affairs, for reorganizing the financing of civic associations from the state budget, the goal of which is to create a comprehensive system for state financing of civic associations.
Neighbourhood Watch, conceived in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, reached Estonia on 2 May 2000, when the first Neighbourhood Watch cooperative agreement was signed in the Nõmme district of Tallinn.
Open Space, a method articulated and implemented by the US management consultant Harrison Owen, is modelled on the spontaneous coffee breaks that take place at conferences, where anyone can join or leave a discussion, based on their interest.
Animal protectors who have joined the voluntary Estonian Society for the Protection of Animals worry not only about pets but the welfare of all animals, including wild animals and farm animals.
Unlike other Northern European countries, Estonia´s civic associations have not to this point been active in shaping alcohol policy and alleviating alcohol problems.
The Civic Society Endowment to be created on the basis of the initiative of voluntary associations will fill an important gap in the state financing of Estonian civic society, which to this point has not been very systematic.
A systematic overview of the Estonian public sector and citizen’s associations is lacking.
If we compare the opportunities afforded by the Estonian Civic Society Development Concept (Estonian acronym – EKAK), approved by the Riigikogu in 2002, to the development strategy entitled Sustainable Estonia 21, approved three years later by the same body, it should not be overlooked that the implementing mechanisms are very different.
The Estonian women's movement, whose traditions reach back to the century before last, started developing especially rapidly in the beginning of last century when Estonia became an independent democratic state. When independence was lost, all women's organizations stopped operating as well.
The Concept for the Development of Civil Society (EKAK) was adopted on 12 December 2002 after a long period of discussions.
Civics has been taught in Estonian general educational system since the very beginning of transition. Although a lot has been done, results are regarded mostly as dissatisfactory. According to the IEA CivEd Study Estonian students support neither conventional nor social movement citizenship model; they are below the international indicators almost at all attitudinal scales.
Disputes on whether the onus should be on civics class in school (in the field of civic education) have lost its point: civics has become everyone's common concern.
The article provides an overview of volunteer work in Estonia, highlights major problems and needs in developing volunteer work and offers ways of creating an environment favorable to volunteering through legal regulation, state policies and support systems.
In a situation where all democracies are suffering from alienation, lack of trust and low electoral turnout, it is natural that people are looking for new democratic instruments or reviving old ones.
Discussion on topics related to civic society, developing civic society and creating an environment favorable to civic initiative has in the last few years focused on the need for intersector cooperation and the forms of cooperation.
This article analyzes pan-European networks between civic associations, which cover the member states of the European Union and the global foreign policy field almost as densely as do government institutions.
The attitude that only they know what the needs of society are is prevalent among Estonian political parties. As a result, the state has not included citizens in finding solutions for the problems facing society - and civic society has been left almost completely in the domain of foreign capital and advisers.
Existing information provided by various information sources does not reflect the sector entirely, thus, making it difficult to determine the actual number of functioning organizations in it, as well as disallowing comparisons within Estonia or internationally.
The structure of civic associations includes both supportive and coordinating as well as developmental roles.
The network of Estonian non-profit organizations in ten regions in the country is now four years old.
Over the last few years, many influential international organizations have dealt with how to get citizens to take part in the political process: the UNDP, World Bank, OECD and the Open Society Institute.
As of November 1, 2002, there were 17,775 registered non-profit organizations in Estonia.
To help enshrine the principles of civil society in legislation, the Estonian Law Centre Foundation has launched a project, which lets ordinary citizens participate in the drafting of the most important.
Like our other social organisations, charity is still in an embryonic stage in Estonia.
On the Riigikogu's anniversary on 23 April 2001, a significant document - Conception of Development of the Estonian Civil Society (CDECS) - was submitted to the Board of the Riigikogu.
In choosing a strategy for the development of civil society and the third sector, Estonia will in fact take a decisive step in the embedding of its whole social model. Equating of the third sector with civil society ignores several important problems, which are connected to the general democratic tasks of a civil society's development.
The preparation of the Estonian Civil Society Development Concept (see http://www.ngo.ee) began in the early summer of 1999 with the aim of contributing to the development of a contemporary society of citizens and regulating the relations between the public and the non-profit sector.1
The article deals with problems related to the development of economic co-operation. The approximate calculations by the Estonian Co-operative Union indicate that 10-15 billion kroons worth of net profit is taken out of Estonia every year by transnational companies based on foreign capital, and as a rule this money is not reinvested.
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
Proceeding from the common interest to strengthen cooperation between the state and non-profit associations in shaping public policy and promoting participatory democracy in Estonia, and, the desire to provide, as equal partners, a contribution to the building of civil society which is an essential precondition for promoting public welfare and increasing competitiveness of the state, the political parties and non-profit associations of Estonia who are signatories to this Memorandum, consider it necessary to
Commentaries of the representatives of political parties represented in the Riigikogu on the Memorandum of Cooperation reflect almost the whole mosaic of the principles of cooperation between the public authorities, political parties and the third sector.
On 14 December 1999, by signing a cooperation memorandum, a cooperation assembly of Estonian political parties and non-profit associations was founded. The task of the assembly is to help through exchange of opinions to shape views of the both parties on long-term strategic goals of development in Estonia.
One may argue that civil society is best viewed as the process that moves society towards consensus in how to face the future.
The Estonian Law Centre has given its contribution for the development of participatory democracy in Estonia.