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Bu çalışma, Kuzey Avrupa'nın eski halklarından olan Estonların geleneksel inançları ile Türkistan ve Sibirya kökenli Türk halk inançları arasındaki kültürel ve dini benzerlikleri incelemektedir. Estonların haldjas (koruyucu ruh), kurat (şeytan figürü), lumememm (kar adamı) ve kutsal korular anlamına gelen Nemus gibi doğa üstü varlıkları ve ritüelleri daha yakından anlaşılabilmesi için Türk halk inanışlarında yer alan benzer kavramlarla karşılaştırılarak Ural-Altay kültürel mirasına atıf yapılmaktadır. Çalışma, eski Eston toplumlarının ritüel pratikleri, kutsal mekânlar ve semboller gibi temel inanç unsurlarını tanıtırken bunların Altay Türklerinin inanışları ile ortak bir kültürel mirası paylaştıklarına da işaret etmektedir. Bu benzerliklerin tarihsel ve kültürel etkileşimin bir göstergesi olduğu öne sürülmektedir. Makalede ayrıca, Hıristiyanlık öncesi dönemde şekillenen ve nesiller boyunca aktarılan Eston inançlarının doğal çevre ve yer altı ruhlarına olan saygıyı içeren karakteri detaylandırılmaktadır. Bu bağlamda, doğayı kutsal kabul eden Eston dünya görüşü ile doğa ruhları ve ata ruhlarına saygı, özellikle "Yeryüzü Dini" olarak bilinen modern Maausk Hareketi ile yeniden canlandırılmıştır. Estonların doğa merkezli dünya görüşü, iki topluluk arasında köprü işlevi gören Türklerin Ural-Altay halkları üzerindeki etkisinin de bir yansıması olabileceği düşünülmekte ve bu benzerliklerin ortaya konmasıyla çalışmanın, Türkoloji, etnoloji ve Dinler Tarihi alanlarına da katkı sunması hedeflenmektedir.

Copyright of Analyses de Population & Avenir is the property of Population & Avenir and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Estonia’s policy towards national minorities is considered one of the most restrictive in Europe, resulting in a differentiated status of persons living in the state and an unprecedented level of statelessness. This is due to the fact that after Estonia’s independence in 1991, the “zero option”, which guarantees citizenship to all residents of the state, was not introduced, but only to those who were Estonian citizens before the annexation of the state by the USSR and their descendants. The others had to go through a naturalisation process in order to obtain citizenship. The restrictive naturalisation law was intended to facilitate the process of social integration by forcing people to learn the Estonian language and culture. The aim of the research conducted in the article is to analyse the assumptions of Estonia’s policy towards the Russian-speaking minority after 1991. The article verifies the hypothesis that Estonia’s policy towards national minorities is not conducive to the integration of representatives of national minorities into the titular nation. This is due to the strict naturalisation requirements, the failure to include representatives of the Russian-speaking minority in the integration process from the outset, and Russia’s activities in the Baltic region. The article consists of three parts. The first presents the genesis of the Russian-speaking minority on the territory of present-day Estonia, the second analyses the functioning of the Russian-speaking minority in the light of the applicable law, while the third examines the state of integration of the Russian-speaking minority into Estonian society and its identification with the state. The analysis leads to the conclusion that it is difficult to make a clear assessment of Estonian policy on the integration of the Russian-speaking minority. On the one hand, a systematic increase in identification with the state can be observed, while on the other hand, significant disparities in integration have become apparent.

This study, guided by life-course theory and cumulative (dis)advantage theory, investigates the impact of the accumulation of socio-economic advantages and disadvantages, over the life course, on the quality of life (QoL) of the older population, and the mediating role of their current financial distress. In our study, we focus on the accumulation model. The study primarily uses data from Estonia in wave 4 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), with supplemental data from wave 5. Linear regression models were calculated based on two measures of quality of life : CASP-12 and life satisfaction. When measured by CASP-12, the socio-economic position in adulthood seems to play a more important role than that of childhood for the current quality of life of older people and even seems to compensate for it slightly when the current financial distress level is controlled for. However, when measured by life satisfaction, accumulated socio-economic (dis)advantages, especially in early youth, have a greater impact on the current quality of life of older people. It is important to acknowledge that different measures of QoL might yield different results.

The article treats the activities of Estonian exile publishers in the Soviet Union (1918–1937) and in the West (1944–1991), concentrating on the publications of translated literary works. The analysis includes the study of the motives for publishing literary translations and the functions these publications were supposed to fulfil in these two different contexts of production and reception. The publishing of Estonian-language literary works in the Soviet Union is studied in the framework of national and cultural policies of the 1920s and 1930s, which determined the development of minority publishing. The output of translated literature by Estonian-language publishers is compared with the all-union translation policy and its preferences in the selection of authors for translation. The treatment of the Estonian-language publishing in the West focuses on the activities of Andres Laur and his publishing house Orto that issued most of the literary translations. The translation publications by other publishers (Vaba Eesti, Eesti Kirjanike Kooperatiiv) represent alternative modes of selection, illustrating the variety of motives.

Estonia is often seen as a model student among the post-communist countries. Many renowned think tanks and organizations measuring the quality of democracy (e.g., Freedom House, Varieties of Democracy, Bertelsmann Foundation) often give Estonia the highest scores in the region. However, the seemingly spotless façade hides growing tensions and emergent contradictions. The current paper will focus on the two most worrisome trends that have become evident in recent years, if not even earlier: (1) the limited success in integrating the large Russian-speaking minority and (2) the rise of the populist radical right. The failure to integrate the ethnic minorities would increase frustration and political alienation among Russian speakers, making it more difficult to build a healthy, cohesive democratic community. However, the rise of the populist radical right, namely the remarkable electoral success of EKRE (Estonian Conservative People’s Party), has proven to be a bigger challenge because it demonstrates that many Estonians are deeply dissatisfied with how democracy works in their country. The article discusses whether it would be possible for dissatisfied Estonians and Russians to join forces to challenge the current liberal democratic model in Estonia. The analysis shows that even if the initial attempts have failed, one could not entirely rule out that prospect.

The exemplarity of Estonia, a Baltic country whose Finnic language has gained, lost and regained official status out of diglossia several times in less than one century, is awesome, from the standpoint of sociolinguistics. Here we will highlight the « lessons » that can be learned from the choices made by of Estonia in the course contemporary history, both in the development of the Estonian language corpus -including promotion of small akin varieties and languages, as võro and mulgi or Kihnu We’ll hint at Estonian exemplarity through three prospects: (1) radical language reform, of the monolectal and artefactual type (Johannes Aavik), (2) elegantly disruptive semiotics (F.R. Kreutzwald), (3) polynomic resurgence of akin languages and dialects alongside with the official language (mulgi, võro, setu, kihnu), reversing the monolectal doctrine of the first language reform. Adaptability and reflexivity are main assets in this sociolinguistic « success story ».

Resumo: Uma recente imigração de brasileiros para Estônia é revelada no presente artigo, evidenciando trajetórias dos imigrantes e o surgimento de negócios étnicos e tecnológicos. O país situa-se no seio do Mar Báltico e promove a imigração qualificada, focada na economia digital. Foi aplicado um questionário tipo survey a 65 respondentes brasileiros que vivem na Estônia, sendo complementado por oito entrevistas em profundidade com empreendedores brasileiros e artistas que se empresariam no país. Os pesquisadores apresentam as características dessa comunidade em formação e possíveis caminhos para futuros imigrantes, evidenciando aspectos dos negócios étnicos e interações dos brasileiros com a cultura estoniana, trajetórias migratórias, dificuldades enfrentadas e oportunidades levantadas por esses imigrantes.

The Estonian poet and essayist, philologist, university teacher Valmar (Vladimir Karl Moritz Alexander) Adams wrote many СVs and autobiographies over his long life. He was born at the turn of the century and was a direct witness to the European turmoil of the twentieth century. His CVs are a unique example of both business and artistic autobiographical genres in completely opposed cultural contexts. He was a citizen of the Russian Empire, of the Estonian Republic and the Estonian SSR, then a citizen of the Reich Commissariat of Ostland within the German Reich, then a citizen of the USSR and again the Republic of Estonia: Adams had to negotiate with his context in his autobiographies at different periods. Iurii Lotman wrote about his colleague: ‘Valmar Adams is a man of versatile giftedness. It is difficult to describe him briefly. I once advised him to write a play where the characters would be the five sides of himself’. In the present article these different sides of Adams are revealed on the basis of documents and autobiographies from the archives of the Literary Museum of Tartu, University of Tartu, and the KGB.

The article examines that the world in which Disco Elysium takes place is a video game that has garnered all the votes since its release in 2019, is the same as that of Une odeur terrible et sainte, a novel published in 2013 in Estonia and whose reception was much less favorable. Topics include considered that these two works have the same author, Robert Kurvitz, supported for the video game by the cultural group of avant-guard ZA/UM.

L’article explica i aborda el significat, el contingut i els beneficis de la governança electrònica, utilitzant l’exemple d’Estònia. La governança electrònica no ha de ser complexa legalment, però cal entendre i analitzar les implicacions de les noves tecnologies. A Estònia, totes les bases de dades públiques estan connectades, proporcionant la possibilitat d’aportar dades una única vegada (once-only principle). Els individus tenen fàcilment una visió de conjunt de les seves dades i de com s’utilitzen. Els serveis digitals estan centrats en les persones i són accessibles mitjançant targetes d’identificació i codis a l’abast de tota la ciutadania i els residents. Explicar l’exemple estonià i les seves implicacions legals pot servir d’inspiració a altres països.

This article is about the Estonian transition from the era of perestroika to the 1990s. It suggests that the Estonian national movement considered the existence of the nation to be threatened. Therefore, it used the window of opportunity presented by perestroika to take control of time and break free of the empire. This essay has the following theoretical premises. First, Estonia was not engaged in “normal politics” but in something that I will conceptualise, following the Copenhagen School, as “existential politics.” Second, the key feature of existential politics is time. I will draw on the distinction, made in the ancient Greek thought, between the gods Chronos and Kairos. By applying these concepts to Estonia, I suggest Kairos presented the opportunity to break the normal flow of time and the decay of Socialism (Chronos) in order to fight for the survival of the Estonian nation. The third starting point is Max Weber’s historical sociology, particularly his notion of “charisma,” developed in Stephen Hanson’s interpretation of the notions of time in Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism. Based on this, I will argue that Estonian elites thought they were living in extraordinary times that required the breaking of the normal flow of time, which was thought to be corroding the basis of the nation’s existence.

Résumé: L'étude* du rôle des conseillers scientifiques, nouvellement installés dans les ministères estoniens pour servir d'intermédiaires entre la recherche et la politique, montre qu'ils contribuent surtout à améliorer la qualité des études commandées. Cette fonction nécessite l'accès à des sources académiques (articles et jeux de données) qui serait facilité par le recours à l' Open Science , encore inexistant dans les organismes chargés de la conception et de la préparation des politiques publiques. Scientific advisors are a relatively new addition to government ministries in Estonia. A study* of their role as intermediaries between research and policy shows that they help especially to improve the quality of studies commissioned. However, this requires access to academic sources (articles and datasets) that would be made easier by the use of Open Science, which is not yet available in the organizations that design and prepare public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the extent that a European funding instrument, the Framework Programme (FP), has affected the structuring of sociologists’ project collaboration practices in a post-communist Estonia, which joined the EU in 2004. It is hypothesized that to better understand how the FP has structured the sociology discipline in Estonia, its usage should be studied in two distinct levels of academic context; the national and disciplinary levels. Science administrative elite have used the FP as a normative model for implementing national research funding policy reforms. In the case of sociologists, these reforms have engendered a partial auto-exclusion from competition for national grants perceived as highly competitive and resulted in an orientation towards commissioned contract funding both at a national and European level. This exposes the limited structuring effect of the FP in Estonia, a country otherwise considered an exemplary participant in EU programs.

Unemployment hysteresis is a much discussed and researched topic in macroeconomics. The present paper examined unemployment hysteresis in five Estonian regions. It used two panel data methods, namely, the Im-Pesaran-Shin (IPS) test and the Fourier Im-Pesaran-Shin (FIPS) test. The originality and value of this paper is that this is the first study that uses the panel unit root tests to examine unemployment dynamics in the Estonian regions. The findings revealed that the unemployment rates in the Estonian regions could be best described as a stationary process. This result is in line with the natural rate hypothesis. A research implication is that this study has illustrated that nonlinear tests could be an appropriate approach to examine unemployment hysteresis because other methods may fail to reject the null hypothesis. A practical implication of this study is that it sheds light on the nature of unemployment dynamics in Estonia at the regional level. As the findings revealed, the unemployment rates in the Estonian regions had the meanreversion property. Therefore, the higher-than-normal unemployment rates are likely to return to the natural level even in the absence of intervention policies initiated by the government or policy makers.

The ethnic political mobilizations, which were originally led by the non-titular nations of the Soviet republics, traced different paths at their latter phase, after the collapse of the USSR in particular; the emerging of de facto independent states inside de jure newly-established states (Moldova and Georgia), the political reconciliation by forming autonomy (Moldova and Ukraine), the uprising of the inter-state war (Azerbaijan and Armenia), and the ethnic tension toward improvement of minority rights (Lithuania and Estonia). The four casestudies presented in this paper demonstrate that rich material and immaterial resources increased the sustainability of ethnic political mobilization. The sustainability was an important factor in achieving de facto independent states after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This paper emphasizes that these material and immaterial resources were not valid for the mobilization until the appearance of political opportunity and political will for collective action by social political organizations. The political mobilization in Transnistria not had only rich resources, but strong political will among associates toward regional independence. The political actors discovered the resources, supplied the resources to the participants of collective action, motivated them toward political activity and increased the potentiality of immaterial resources.

"Europe is nothing but a common Will Of Those who live in it, through a common vocation ... European unity is the European spirit." (Bernard Voyenne) Defined as a "political and economic partnership unique in the world", gathering together 28 member states, the European community Determined since the Beginning of Significant interest. The consistent impact in the field of economic and social inequities generates a strong debate in the member states over the enlargement process. The convergence or divergence regional development impact and perspectives relevant Became the Cohesion policy issues and subsequently Became one of the base Priorities of the EU. Main focus of this policy WAS social and economic disparities reducing Between member states and regions, Sustainable Development and equal Opportunities. In this perspective the present study intend to analyze the main strands of cohesion policy of Estonia and the results obtained in 2007-2013.

The institutional change in post-Soviet countries is analyzed using the example of the development of youth policy (YP) in Estonia from 1990 to 2013 and shows the necessity of articulating individual and institutional temporalities in order to understand the evolution of a public policy sector. Indeed, in the Estonian case, the institutional rupture (policy) did not occur during the collapse of the Soviet Union (politics) but during the period of political stability when the Ministry of Education was moved away from the capital in 2001. YP is now seen as a trans-sectorial policy incorporated into the State planning process based on the objectives of the European Union. At the same time, the State has strengthened its strategic role in policy planning. If one considers individual temporalities, it is having moved the department and not the fall of the USSR that generated the rupture in State officials’ trajectories. It gave young agents acquainted with European policies access to key positions. The change in Estonian YP reveals the importance of studying how policy leaders were socialized in order to understand the highly heterogeneous behavior of reformers in post-Soviet countries.

The history of Estonian landscape research is limited to the twentieth century. The most significant milestone in this process was the appointment of J.G. Granö as Professor of Geography at the University of Tartu who introduced the German systematic and scientific notion of landscape (Landschaft). This has been a dominant trend ever since, but Estonian landscape study has had numerous undercurrents and exiting interactions with other disciplines from both the natural and social sciences, as well as the humanities. This is a first attempt to write a landscape research history with a broader perspective in mind, stressing the wide spectrum of landscape studies by researchers who may not consider themselves primarily as concerned with landscapes but have nevertheless contributed to the discipline and the understanding of landscapes in Estonia.

This study points out some basic problems of linguloid systematics and proposes solutions for them. A taxonomic examination of the unique species of the genus Obolus found in the Upper Cambrian of Estonia and Russia, O. apollinis (= O. ruchini, O. transversus, O. rebrovi and Ungula convexa) is used as an example of a methodology employing all of the characters valid for distinguishing species of both extant and fossil Lingulidae. These characters are: - umbonal region; - body musculature; - septa or ridges; - main mantle canals - as established and figured by Emig (1982, 1983) and Biernat and Emig (1993). All of them have been determined to be taxonomically stable and have been studied and compared to take into account intraspecific variability; they should be used to describe or to redescribe any taxon of the superfamily Linguloidea. Characters of the shell and valves, such as shape, size, and dimensional ratios have no taxonomic value.

Aquest article examina la relació i el contacte entre «llengües mitjanes» i «llengües internacionals» a Catalunya i Estònia des d'un punt de vista comparat en l'era glocal. Prenent com a punt de partida de la comparació les similituds dels dos casos en els respectius contextos històric, polític i sociodemogràfic, s'analitza com els canvis en aquests camps poden haver afectat la percepció del context sociolingüístic de cada grup de parlants i les «ideologies lingüístiques» (Woolard, 1998) mitjançant les quals els individus atorguen autoritat a les seves llengües. A partir de dades recollides per mitjà d'un treball de camp eminentment qualitatiu (observació participativa, entrevistes en profunditat i grups de discussió) a Tallin i a Barcelona, s'aconsegueix detectar el ventall de posicions que poden ocupar els parlants en cada teixit social i la manera com defineixen la seva «perspectiva situada» (Blommaert, 2005), unes posicions a voltes generadores de tensió, a voltes més positives en relació amb la valoració del multilingüisme.

Estònia i Catalunya comparteixen una situació lingüística similar (posttotalitària) però mostren dues respostes polítiques diferents a aquesta situació, especialment en el seu tractament del rus i el castellà. A Estònia, oficialment monolingüe, el rus és una llengua «estrangera » amb facilitats lingüístiques limitades (incloent-hi escoles en rus); a Catalunya, el castellà és una llengua (co)oficial amb amplis drets lingüístics (excloent-hi escoles en castellà). Aquest article identifica una sèrie d'àmbits en què les polítiques lingüístiques estonianes han estat motiu de controvèrsia pel que fa al compliment de les normes establertes pel Conveni Marc per a la Protecció de les Minories Nacionals. En tots els casos, la reacció d'Estònia a la crítica internacional ha consistit a adoptar una opció que ja era operativa a Catalunya. Basant-se en això, l'article sosté que Catalunya podria ser un model per a Estònia (no a l'inrevés) i que Estònia podria acabar convertint-se en una comunitat política bilingüe de la mateixa mena que Catalunya.

Valka (Latvia) and Valga (Estonia) form a cross-border urban continuum of 20 000 inhabitants. The article first proposes to examine the singularity of the local cross-border configuration, within the context of national restoration, which has characterized Baltic States since 1991, and then their integration to the EU. The border is nowadays completely open, but is still part of the identity and everyday life of the city. To date the urban fabric has hardly been affected by this change of status, and obstacles still prevent the development of a more intense cross-border activity. However, economic strategies do exist to mend the urban fabric, with the help of EU funds. Can an exploitation of the border be an element of conversion of a local economy weakened by the decline of industrial and agricultural activities? The economic and demographic decline is a reality, and was formerly increased by the disadvantages brought about by the border proximity and a peripheral situation in the national territories. Can the re-united city become again an important regional center, as it used to be during the past centuries?

The Kurtna reserve (North-Eastern Estonia) includes about forty lakes of hydro-glacial origin, among which the most are kettle hole lakes. Their level and the quality of water are conditioned by aquifers, which are threatened by industrial activities (sand quarry, peat production and oil shale excavation). The paper presents results of a field campaign in March 2013, for measuring water temperature, dissolved oxygen and salinity in two ice-covered lakes (Martiska and Nõmme). Martiska is a closed lake. A large (from 0 °C to 4 °C) inverse thermal stratification takes place under the ice. The very thick anoxic layer may be caused by the cumulating effect of the ice barrier and the consumption in a rich in organic matter lake. Nõmme fits in a hydrographical chain with tributaries and an emissary. The inverse thermal stratification is disturbed by a well delimited mid-layer. Temperature, dissolved oxygen and salinity show that it is probably the fluvial water body, which has entered the lake. The hypothesis is confirmed by the study of the river plume. This inflow is rich in dissolved oxygen. We may suggest, that the lakes with an affluent are less threatened by the winter lack of oxygen than the closed lakes of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large collections of the brachiopod obolid Schmidtites celatus have been gathered from Upper Cambrian-Lower Ordovician strata in four northern Estonian localities. The morphological features and the taxonomic characters of the genus and of the single species representing it are re-described and illustrated. New diagnoses are proposed based on characters of the shell and morphological traits that permit Schmidtites celatus to be compared with and distinguished from the other obolid genera occurring in the same samples or areas, i.e. Ungula ingrica, Oepikites, and Obolus apollinis which now includes specimens formerly described as Ungula convexa. Schmidtites celatus differs from them mainly in the arrangement of its musculature.

Abundant worm borings were found in some brachiopod shells (Clitambonites, Estlandia, Nicolella) from the Ordovician (Caradoc) oil shale in North Estonia. 9 of 21 brachiopod genera (43 %) have been bored. Excluding the size and thickness of valves, no common morphological feature discriminates the brachiopods with borings from those without them. The Trypanites are host-specific, and the frequency of bored valves varies from 6.5 % in Bekkerina to 51 % in Estlandia. The worm larvae preferred hosts with thick lamellose shells, such as those of the clitambonitids, especially Clitambonites schmidti. The boring organisms were size-selective; they preferred large adult specimens. The majority of the borings are oriented, and living hosts were preferred to dead shells. Some clitambonitidine brachiopods, like C. schmidti tolerated a large number of the borer's shafts in their valves. Few bored valves have the blister-like shell-repair structures in their interior.

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The article presents a study which analyzes the potential of postmodern semiotics with particular focus given to textual semiotics in order to provide efficient and interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological foundations for the development of intercultural competencies in research and education. It compares textual or cultural semiotics from the school école de Tartu in Estonia to the intercultural pedagogy put forth by Martine Abdallah-Pretceille and Louis Porcher in France. Topics discussed include the self-awareness and culture awareness models and the book "Éducation et communication interculturelle," written by Abdallah-Pretceille and Porcher.

At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century Russia became an important center of European and, indeed, world avant-garde. The present study demonstrates that Igor Severianin--the founder and driving force behind the Egofuturists (a group representing a faction of the Russian avantgarde) -- played a major role in realizing the most important objectives of the Russian avant-garde, namely, the idea of artistic synthesis and internationalization phenomenon, establishing intercultural communication. Throughout his professional career, which included organizing a wildly successful exhibit shown in Russia and in twelve other European countries, publishing literary translations from and into Russian, as well as popularizing Estonian culture and literature, Severianin, perhaps more than any of his fellow Futurists, succeeded in achieving meaningful cross-cultural exchange. The idea of artistic synthesis is the most important means through which a wealth of avant-garde artists can now be rediscovered, because this idea captures what is common to their work and, thus, allows their work to be seen as a unitary whole within the history of universal culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article evaluate the restaurant "Balthasar," located in Tallinn, Estonia, and the organ situated in the church next to it.

The article focuses on the collective memory of orphanages and "collective schools" in post Communist Estonia. The author discusses the divergence between commonly held notions about education in these orphanages and the memories of those who were raised and educated in these places. The author examined archival records of interviews used to produce a report on the evolution of the institutional care of children in post Communist Estonia.

A new European regulatory framework for electronic communications came into force in July 2003. The Baltic countries should have adopted it when they were admitted into the EU. The main objective of this framework is the rapprochement of sectorial regulations with general competition law. Estonia's telecommunications market was liberalized in January 2001, but those in Latvia and Lithuania were opened to competition in January 2003 only. Therefore, the market is not yet ready for a high degree of competition, and it is probably too early to even expect its significant development. This description of privatization in the three Baltic countries reviews the situation of telecommunications markets there. The current situation very much depends on decisions made in the past. Estonia moved forward along the road already taken elsewhere in Europe, and the results are clearly visible when making comparisons. The strengths and weaknesses of the models adopted are identified; and proposals, made that might be helpful for orienting future policies in this industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Bulletin des bibliothèques de France is the property of ENSSIB and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Distribution of parties along ideological continuum historically has been the issue of governmental accountability, has served as a competition platform and communication code between political candidates and potential voters. Debate on the framework of the left-right continuum and its impact on voting behaviour are still ongoing in the Western countries, generally recognising the split as such, and rather debating its changing nature. The aim of the paper is to highlight the left-right continuum as a meaningful notion in the research of electoral behaviour both in Latvia and Estonia according to the thesis that voters in general tend to choose a party in elections which corresponds (or lies closest) to their self-placement in the left-right continuum (Downs, 1957); and the Laponce’s thesis concerning the left-right continuum as the “political Esperanto” – a language allowing parties and voters to understand each other (Laponce, 1981). Results of this research show that although the opinion of the parties themselves and experts concerning placement of the parties along the left-right scale coincides, the left-right continuum does not serve as the “political Esperanto” between the parties and voters. Still the idea of voting for the party, which is closest to one’s own opinion, is particularly well pronounced in Latvia.

Focuses on the Estonian model of e-government. Definition and usage of e-government; History of e-government in Estonia; Objectives of establishing e-government in Estonia; Steps taken by the Estonia government to implement e-governance; Impact of large scale availability of the Internet in public domain and schools; Secrets behind successful e-governance in Estonia.