Rein Taagepera as citizen and essayist

Abstract

It tribute is perhaps to a scholar's less than more customary essayistic for works an article or to series what such indeed as are this in to most pay tribute to a scholar's more es ayi tic works or to what indeed are in most cases merely newspaper articles or radio broadcasts. 1 However, in the case of Rein Taagepera (and dare I say, in the context of Rein Taagepera ~ an issue to which I will return in a moment), I will submit that his contributions have been notable in at least three different ways. I will summarize these contributions by altering slightly my title. Namely, I will speak of Rein Taagepera as citizen heartener, Rein Taagepera as principled conciliator, and Rein Taagepera as essayistic daredevil. Taagepera's contribution to political opinion and discourse in Estonia is manifested in all three of these genres, and certainly ranks him among the great publicists of Estonia. It is for this reason that anyone interested in also finding out how a scholar can contribute as a citizen would do well to consider this aspect of Rein Taagepera as well.