From Private Organizations to Democratic Infrastructure: Political Parties and the State in Estonia

The article discusses the relationship between political parties and the state in Estonia. The analysis focuses on the development of a legal framework for political parties, different trends in public party financing, and the circulation of people between political and administrative elites. Elite circulation is examined by looking at the movement of people from political to bureaucratic positions and vice versa based on a database covering the career paths of all MPs and ministers in Estonia since 1992. It is shown that civil servants have entered the political elite at a higher rate than vice versa. The article concludes by looking at the debates on the neutrality of county governors and secretaries-general. Overall, the article demonstrates a close and strengthening relationship between political parties and the state. That has been visible in the legal status of parties that has moved from NGO-s to public ‘democratic infrastructure’, their growing reliance on public subsidies, and the substantial circulation of people between administrative and political echelons. That can partly be explained by patronage and particular legacies of communism and state-building, but the small size of the country may have an independent effect.