Although scholars have shown consistent interest in small states in past decades, the Republic of Estonia has not been included in any study of small states owing to its brief history of independent statehood. This article provides an overview of the development of the Estonian civil service, to enable readers to understand the background and scope of reforms in the 1990s. The objective of the study is to test previous findings on small states using empirical research into the Estonian civil service. Interviews with civil servants reveal a few new characteristics attributable to the size of a state such as personalization of units and organizational objectives, and additional sources of organizational instability. However, it is argued that several problems of public administration in developing countries and small states overlap, which creates difficulties in distinguishing between developmental factors and the size of the state as determinants. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A small civil service in transition: the case of Estonia

The aim of this study is to analyze the role of foreign influence in the development of Estonian central government since the beginning of the 1990s. A distinction is made between two types of policy transfer, which have been characteristic of Estonia and can be applied to transitional countries more generally. The first is demand-based policy learning based on the initiative and acknowledged need of recipient countries. The second is supply-based policy transfer, which is to a large extent based on foreign aid and the initiative of donor countries. Supply-based policy transfer was predominant at the start of transition, but in the late 1990s Estonian government institutions became more proactive in selecting different country models and engaging in lesson-drawing based on demand. Consequently, the focus on policy transfer has lost its significance and policy learning has become more important.

http://hum.ttu.ee/failid/oppematerjalid/AHintro/trl_transfer.pdf

Demand- and supply-based policy transfer in Estonian public administration

In 1977 the government of Costa Rica established a new university, the Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED), and charged it with using distance teaching methods to meet the needs of new target groups as well as to alleviate some of the pressure of student demand on the existing three state-funded campus-based universities.

Uladislao Gámez Solano

Papers

Costa Rica: A National Educational Development Plan.