Population-related Policies in Estonia in the 20th Century: Stages and Turning Points

Authors

• Kalev Katus
• Allan Puur
• Asta Põldma

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23979/fypr.44999

Keywords:

Estonia, ageing, family, fertility, population-related policies, population, public health, social policies

Abstract

This article is about the experience of population-related policies in Estonia.
During the recent decade much has been published on this theme, usually with an
analysis of currently enforced regulations. Repeated amendments of legal norms and
procedures, which are inevitable in a period of fundamental reforms, however, tend
to limit their value quite rapidly. Against such a background, this paper applies a
longer perspective with an attempt to cover the main stages and turning points in
the development of population-related policies in the country since the establishment
of statehood in 1918.
In the interwar period, the efforts to build up a modern nation included setting up
relevant institutions and regulations in the ? eld of population-related policies. These
undertakings have been seldom discussed in the recent publications. Somewhat
similarly, the postwar decades are frequently regarded as fairly distant and of little
relevance to present challenges. To understand the developments, however, the longer
view should not be neglected. Todays concerns are rooted in the arrangements and
disarrangements of the past, and no less importantly, such continuity is strengthened
by the nature of population development and the ? ow of cohorts which absorb the
in? uences of the societal environment and carry them along through their lifetime.
The article is structured in four sections focusing on the development of marriage
and the family, children and fertility, the pension system and social welfare, and the
health care system. In each section, the aim is to outline successive policy regimes
and their main characteristics in terms of objectives and methods of regulations.
Understandably, limited space does not allow coverage of minor changes and
technicalities, so for more speci? c information the article provides further reference
to various source materials.