The Impact of Public Policy and Membership of the EU on Regional Policy in Estonia

The primary aim of the paper is to provide an overview of the development and topical issues of the Estonian regional policy along with public policy. In order to implement a public policy, choices must be made based on values, which in their turn considerably influence the actual result. Public policy is usually described as a process of making choices from the determination of the situation to evaluation of the policy being implemented. This process has often an irrational character, which is caused by limited information available to decision-makers and limited time. My approach moves on from the statement of Ludek Sukora and his colleagues (Balchin et al 1999, 163) which says that in Eastern European countries, thus, hypothetically in Estonia as well, the former centralised planning economy replaced by relatively small local governments under the conditions of new legislation, where national plans do not work and consistent regional development policies do not exist, has brought about a situation of uncertainty, application of ad hoc methods instead of long-term comprehensive planning, and the use of earlier experience in administrative techniques. Following the above I present following hypotheses: H1) governmental normative documents on regional development change frequently and are often contradictory; H2) institutions responsible for the implementation of regional policy are unstable; H3) national and EU plans do not work and sectoral development plans are not compatible; H4) regional political initiatives depend on activities of different officials or ministers - human factor is critical; H5) no attempts are being made in municipalities to achieve awareness of conceptual basics of national and EU policies and their objectives, instead, different lobbying methods have been applied. In theoretical part, we look at the concept of regional policy and it’s changes in Europe. The empirical part will give a description of the Estonian regional and administrative polices in time, primarily based on observations, on the content analysis of documents and the written media, and interviews carried out in 1990-2005.

Centre?periphery model explaining the regional development of the informational and transitional society

This paper analyses regional development and uses centre-periphery models (CPM) of Friedmann, Gibbs and Hautamäki as a base for theoretical discussion. In general, these centre-periphery models foresee stabilisation and de-concentration of population and economic agents after the concentration stages. The spatial processes of 1970s and 1980s were rather well described by the CPM. However, the 1990s turned to a new concentration in several countries. Classical CPM that assumed the continuity of industrial society and relevant factors, both negative and positive for concentration, influencing regional structures and settlement became useless. Therefore, first topic in this paper analyses concentration-deconcentration factors of the informational society and tries to plant the classical approach in the new soil. Secondly, we set a hypothesis arguing that Baltic Countries have followed partly similar, but simultaneously rather different spatial development stages. If the Western economies enjoyed particularly after the World War II economic and political stability, then regional development of their Eastern counterparts has been influenced by several political convulsions. Besides, even the same results in urban development may have had rather different causes in the West and former East. The empirical part analyses the regional development of Estonia in a historic perspective. The description of past developments attempts to outline (1) influencial causal factors, (2) periods of concentration and deconcentration, and (3) particularities compared with Western countries. The discussion is supported mainly by population data of past censuses, but uses also a limited number of soft empirical materials like small case studies, interviews and observations. Finally, we attempt to design a comparison of different urban development stages in UK, Finland and Estonia. This paper prepares and tests an extensive analyse of census and labour market survey as well as enterprise development data of the transition period, the 1990s. Key words: centre-periphery model, urban development stages, political factors in urban development

Centre-periphery model explaining the regional development of the informational and transitional society

This paper analyses regional development and uses centre-periphery models (CPM) of Friedmann, Gibbs and Hautamäki as a base for theoretical discussion. In general, these centre-periphery models foresee stabilisation and de-concentration of population and economic agents after the concentration stages. The spatial processes of 1970s and 1980s were rather well described by the CPM. However, the 1990s turned to a new concentration in several countries. Classical CPM that assumed the continuity of industrial society and relevant factors, both negative and positive for concentration, influencing regional structures and settlement became useless. Therefore, first topic in this paper analyses concentration-deconcentration factors of the informational society and tries to plant the classical approach in the new soil. Secondly, we set a hypothesis arguing that Baltic Countries have followed partly similar, but simultaneously rather different spatial development stages. If the Western economies enjoyed particularly after the World War II economic and political stability, then regional development of their Eastern counterparts has been influenced by several political convulsions. Besides, even the same results in urban development may have had rather different causes in the West and former East. The empirical part analyses the regional development of Estonia in a historic perspective. The description of past developments attempts to outline (1) influencial causal factors, (2) periods of concentration and deconcentration, and (3) particularities compared with Western countries. The discussion is supported mainly by population data of past censuses, but uses also a limited number of soft empirical materials like small case studies, interviews and observations. Finally, we attempt to design a comparison of different urban development stages in UK, Finland and Estonia. This paper prepares and tests an extensive analyse of census and labour market survey as well as enterprise development data of the transition period, the 1990s. Key words: centre-periphery model, urban development stages, political factors in urban developmen

Regional identity and social capital in regional economic development and planning

This paper analyses the regional/local institutionalisation and social capital formation process and its components. The focus is on regional identity - the special kind of phenomenon, which forms throughout historical and territorial socialisation. The great ambition of this paper is to interrelate Anssi Paasi (1986) and other cultural geographers' and sociologists' ideas with recent regional economic development and planning discussion and to enhance the currently very popular participatory approach to regional identity as a planning tool. The theoretical part describes components and the process of regional identity formation. It analyses its positive and negative effects in regional economic development. We assume that regional identity correlates with people's volition in achieving common goals and raises their personal activity and influences due to the regional economic development and planning process. The regional identity is hypothetically crucial in securing public participation in planning too. The main empirical part of the chapter is based on mass survey (carried out simultaneously in three communities) analysis and serves as test for the hypothesises that arise from theoretical discussion. Key words: regional identity%2C institutionalisation, public participatio

The Impact of Public Policy and Membership of the EU on Regional Policy in Estonia

The primary aim of the paper is to provide an overview of the development and topical issues of the Estonian regional policy along with public policy. In order to implement a public policy, choices must be made based on values, which in their turn considerably influence the actual result. Public policy is usually described as a process of making choices from the determination of the situation to evaluation of the policy being implemented. This process has often an irrational character, which is caused by limited information available to decision-makers and limited time. My approach moves on from the statement of Ludek Sukora and his colleagues (Balchin et al 1999, 163) which says that in Eastern European countries, thus, hypothetically in Estonia as well, the former centralised planning economy replaced by relatively small local governments under the conditions of new legislation, where national plans do not work and consistent regional development policies do not exist, has brought about a situation of uncertainty, application of ad hoc methods instead of long-term comprehensive planning, and the use of earlier experience in administrative techniques. Following the above I present following hypotheses: H1) governmental normative documents on regional development change frequently and are often contradictory; H2) institutions responsible for the implementation of regional policy are unstable; H3) national and EU plans do not work and sectoral development plans are not compatible; H4) regional political initiatives depend on activities of different officials or ministers - human factor is critical; H5) no attempts are being made in municipalities to achieve awareness of conceptual basics of national and EU policies and their objectives, instead, different lobbying methods have been applied. In theoretical part, we look at the concept of regional policy and it's changes in Europe. The empirical part will give a description of the Estonian regional and administrative polices in time, primarily based on observations, on the content analysis of documents and the written media, and interviews carried out in 1990-2005

Social infrastructure planning in declining rural centres

The aim of this empirical contribution is to analyse social infrastructure (SI) planning and development practices in Estonian local communities. The SI considered: schoolhouses, kindergartens, sports halls, cultural houses and the like, were extensively built by collective farms and local enterprises during the 1970s and 1980s. During the post-socialist transition period, spatial structures have gone through drastic changes. Especially remote rural and old industrial areas lost a major part of their employment and remarkable share of population. The SI facilities are partly out of use because of low demand and high operation costs, simultaneously, they would need remarkable investments to be renovated and upgraded. This paper consists of three principal parts. First, we analyse a historical development of planning practices in the Soviet Union and its consequences to the settlement structure. Secondly, we present an ad hoc typology and genesis of rural settlements and service centres; using census data, we describe their socio-economic and demographic (social) transition of the 1990s. Finally, we analyse comparatively the problems and planning practices of SI in selected communities