摘要: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.
关键词:Estonia; ageing; family; fertility; population-related policies; population; public health; social policies