Brill publishers
Introduction to Research on Political Leadership in Central and Eastern Europe
In: A Companion to Political Leadership in Central and Eastern Europe after 1990
Tõnis Saarts, Ott Lumi, Leif Kalev
Introduction
Political leaders have played a vital role in the consolidation of Estonian
democracy and party system since the country regained independence in 1991.
Among those leaders, there have been several charismatic and even interna-
tionally well-known politicians: the post-independence period’s first prime
minister, Mart Laar (1992–1994), renowned for his daring neoliberal market
reforms; Andrus Ansip (2005–2014) – the longest serving prime minister in
democratic Estonia who brought the country through the relatively challeng-
ing Great Recession (2008–2011) and helped Estonia to join the Eurozone;
Edgar Savisaar – one of the most controversial politician in Estonia, who never
served as a prime minister since 1992,1 but whose indirect or direct influence
helped to shape the Estonian post-communist political history to a big extent.
The current chapter aims to explore the role played by political leaders, pri-
marily party leaders, in shaping and managing three major political institu-
tions in Estonia: political parties, government (executive) and presidency.
Thus, the research questions we are seeking for answers are as follows:
1. What are the main types of political leadership evident in Estonian party
politics, and how has the impact of leadership changed over the different
decades and phases of the party system development?
2. What role have the party leaders played in forming and maintaining
coalition governments, and how have their leadership skills varied as
prime ministers?
3. Although Estonia has a weak and indirectly elected presidency, what
have been the prevailing patterns of presidential leadership and to
what extent have the political struggles over the position of presidency
strengthened or weakened the various party leaders’ political standings?
The current study relies predominately on secondary academic sources such
as peer-reviewed articles, book chapters in edited volumes, monographs,
etc., which have examined the political developments in Estonia since the
