ISTR Sixth International Conference Toronto, Canada / July 11-14, 2004 Contesting Citizenship and Civil Society in a Divided World

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	Abstracts

Citizenship and Political Communication in Estonia
by
Erle Rikmann
Estonian Institute of Humanities, researcher

Results of several surveys conducted in Estonia during the last years indicate that the estrangement between the public authority and the population continues to propagate. On one hand, there is lack of representation in running of the state, and the citizens do not feel that their interests are represented in political institutions. On the other hand, the so-called insufficiency of participation is increasing as well – people tend to abstain from voting, their interest in political processes decreases, and civic initiative in the decision-making process is still rather insufficient. Estrangement is enhanced further by the multiplicity of the political and cultural identities of people living in Estonia. Only 80 percent of the population of Estonia has Estonian citizenship; around 6 percent are citizens of Russia and 12 percent of the inhabitants do not possess any citizenship. Nevertheless, both implementation of the short-range political development plans of Estonian society and resolution of the main social problems faced by the government can only be achieved if the people are informed and involved in the decision-making process, incl. in the making of decisions that influence the development of the society. Civic society is considered as the mechanism making it possible. In my presentation I shall discuss the obstacles for civic participation in Estonia, driven from the diverse ways of political communication characteristic to the different citizenship-groups in society.

Date received: September 23, 2003

Copyright © 2003 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # call-73.