Transformation of the Estonian Welfare State in the 21st Century – Saying Goodbye to Bismarck?

About at the same time when Gøsta Esping-Andersen (1990) published his seminal work on ‘worlds of welfare’, former communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) started to build their model of welfare capitalism. The academic community followed this important social transition with great interest that resulted in impressive amount of research literature. One of the favourite topics for decades has been the attempt to define the type of welfare regime in post-communist countries.1 However, the interest towards further developments in the Eastern European welfare states has decreased and latest reforms are largely neglected in the international research literature. Few existing studies evaluate developments and perspectives in selected Eastern European countries rather differently, ranging from very optimistic2 to very pessimistic.3 The dominant view sees CEE as still underdeveloped and in transition from post communism to the welfare democracies evidenced by the lower social expenditures compared to the mature welfare states. Indeed, 30 years of freedom have not narrowed the welfare expenditure cap between West and East except for a few cases such as Slovenia and the Czech Republic.4 Baltic countries continue spending only 15–16 per cent of GDP on social welfare, which is about half of the EU average.5 Such focus on welfare state outcomes solely leaves institutional mechanisms of policy making uncovered and makes hard to understand factors and actors behind the processes.

(Extract from the Introduction)