Sociology and Sociologists during the 30 Years of Estonia’s Post-Socialist Transformation

Sociology, as it emerged in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) during
the Khrushchev Thaw of the 1960s, was assigned to give decision-makers
numerical feedback about the population’s attitudes and living conditions. It
functioned as a substitute for the feedback mechanisms that in the West were
provided by markets, political democracy, and civil society. With the glasnost
policies initiated in 1986, possibilities of criticising the system were opened,
but scientists also continued to be held in high esteem in the new situation. For
a few years during and immediately after the revolutionary period, sociologists
played a visible role in politics. Since the early 1990s, they have rather avoided
taking party political stances and acted as experts on certain policy areas, such
as social policies and ethnic minority integration. Sociologists have generally
shared the political elite’s quest for modernisation and Westernisation, but
they have reacted against growing inequality. Some of their political initiatives
gained moderate success when they highlighted issues potentially jeopardising
Estonia’s membership in the European Union. In recent years, a right-wing
populism has been emerging that is less concerned about the previously
prevailing modernising and Westernising agenda and directly questions the
need for evidence-based politics.