One of the most apparent signs of the crisis of the democratic system is a systematically decreasing turnout level in national and supranational elections and referenda. In reports and analyses concerning the level of political participation, experts more and more frequently notice a decreasing tendency of the citizen’s involvement in numerous types of elections. As Ola Pettersson points out, “according to the sources, less and less citizens appear at the ballot boxes”. Jacek Raciborski indicates that one of the most signifi cant consequences of the low citizen’s participation at the election procedures is the considerable legitimacy deficit. A number of countries attempt to prevent these phenomena from happening by undertaking various actions aimed at increasing the level of citizens’ involvement in political life (notably by increasing their participation in elections). That would infl uence the growth of the legitimacy level of the undertaken political decisions. It is worth noticing, that apart from the commonly used ways of increasing election attendance (such as correspondence voting, mobile ballot boxes), over the last few years politicians in many countries have had numerous discussions aimed at the implementation of electronic voting (e-voting). Its followers claim that thanks to e-voting, election and referenda turnout may be increased, as this method enables disabled people and people who are abroad to take part in elections. Furthermore, a considerable advantage of e voting, compared to traditional voting in polling stations is of greater convenience than the former. The aim of the following text is to attempt to provide an answer to the question whether electronic voting can be treated as a panacea for low election turnouts, whether this form of voting may be a warranty of a higher level of voter’s attendance than before. In the article, the author bases on the experience connected with e voting in two European countries – Estonia and Switzerland, which can be referred to as the pioneers in the use of e voting.

Funding of Political Parties in the Republic of Estonia

Funding of political parties in Estonia is determined mainly by the Political Parties Act enacted in 1994. It was amended many times and the last meaningful modifications were introduced in 2014. The act assumes a diversification of the financing sources and allows parties to be financed from allocations from the state budget, donations given by a natural persons, membership fees, transactions with the property of the political parties as well as loans. It is worth mentioning that clarity and transparency principles of political parties’ funding are guaranteed by an operation of the independent supervisory body – Estonian Party Funding Supervision Committee.

Autor przedstawia genezę i analizuje symbolikę Memoriału Ofiar Komunizmu w Tallinie. Skupia się na założeniach koncepcyjnych przyjętych przez jego autorów, ale też bierze pod uwagę dokonywane później interpretacje przesłania monumentu. Przywołuje wydarzenia, do których odnosi się to miejsce pamięci. Opisuje okres sowieckiej okupacji Estonii i przedstawia bilans dokonywanych w tamtym czasie represji - masowych aresztowań, potajemnych egzekucji, deportacji ludności i brutalnej kolektywizacji rolnictwa. Tak zarysowany kontekst historyczny pozwala lepiej zrozumieć znaczenie opisywanego pomnika i jego miejsce na mapie pamięci współczesnej Estonii. Autor zwraca jednocześnie uwagę, że talliński pomnik stanowi istotny element nie tylko estońskiej, ale też - szerzej - europejskiej pamięci o ofiarach stalinizmu i komunizmu.

The text below is an attempt to describe circumstances of emerging and further phases of development of the Republic of Estonia with particular attention focused on geopolitical conditions of political, economic and social processes shaping the country and having impact on its international image. Depicting respective periods in the history of Estonia and conducting an analysis of the contemporary Republic of Estonia, the author of the article describes the way that this small Baltic state successfully made to become a modern digital state.

Regulation of emergency states in the Republic of Estonia and the COVID-19 pandemic

There are two types of emergency states distinguished by the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia: state of emergency and state of war. They have been sparsely regulated at the level of the Constitution, leaving detailed issues to statutory regulation. The decision in this regard requires the cooperation of parliament with the authorities of executive power, i.e. the president and the government. The threat to the health and lives of citizens posed by a coronavirus pandemic is not a circumstance justifying the imposition of a state of emergency, let alone a state of war as stipulated in §§128–129 of the Constitution. Thus, the Estonian authorities in March 2020 decided to apply the mechanism of §87 section 8 of the Constitution.

Russia's hostile actions against the Estonian state structures take the form of soft power, which can be observed in such areas as the activities of the Russian-speaking minority, media coverage, or through the use of coercion when it comes to fuel sales. This article presents qualitative methods of measuring Russian influence on Estonia. An observable trend in international relations is replacing hard power with soft power, commonly used against states within the sphere of interest of certain geopolitical entities. It is more difficult to identify the latter and prove it results from an aggressor's deliberate actions. Information warfare, including disinformation and propaganda, is one of the means Russia uses to exert political influence. By accepting the offer of a political and military alliance with the Western world, the Baltic States have become a threat to the Kremlin's imperialist aspirations. Russia's direct military actions against Estonia and the other Baltic states would have provoked a strong reaction and could even have led to military confrontation. However, the Russian government wishes to avoid it and, for the time being, limits itself to soft power measures.

The aim of this article is to present the dependence path and the number of factors which influenced its shape in the process of achieving transitional justice on the post-Soviet area. In comparative studies carried out in Estonia, Georgia and Poland, it has been demonstrated that there were a number of factors that diversified the process of transformation from the authoritarian to democratic system. The need to settle accounts with the Soviet authoritarian regime was diverse and depended on historical and geopolitical conditions, as well as on the political system which was adopted by individual states after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It has been observed that in Georgia the process of achieving transitional justice was not initiated but replaced, after consolidating the democratic system, by the process of achieving historical justice; however, in Estonia and in Poland, the problem of settling accounts with the outgoing authoritarian regime constituted one of the key issues of the transformation.

Civil society in the Republic of Estonia

There is a noticeable development of civil society in Estonia, which has also contributed to its accession to the EU. After the Republic of Estonia gained independence in 1991, social organizations were weak, and the lack of trust in them was, among other things, a consequence of the Soviet period and disappointment with the results of transformation. In the following years, the associations consolidated their position as professional activists with organizational experience appeared. Currently, social activity is becoming more and more popular, new organizations are being created, the number of their members is also increasing and the scope of their activities is expanding. A big problem in Estonia was also the low level of public trust in state institutions and NGOs, but these attitudes are changing. The aim of this article is to analyze the circumstances of creation of the civil society and its activity in the Republic of Estonia.