Comparative Politics and Government of the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the 21st Century

Comparative Politics and Government of the Baltic States provides an accessible, comprehensive and balanced comparative analysis of the political development and reinvention of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania since seizing independence from a disintegrating Soviet Union in August 1991.

Daunis Auers initially considers the political history of the region before focusing on the different constitutional and institutional choices made by Baltic leaders in the early 1990s. Auers compares constitutions, parliaments and executives as well as local governments, courts, bureaucracies and domestic security services. Other chapters analyse political parties and electoral systems, as well as the comparative development of civil society, the impact of corruption, and the political salience of latent ethnic tensions between titular-Russophone communities in Estonia and, especially, Latvia. The final chapters address economic, social and welfare developments as well as the Baltic states' cooperation in their common, crucial pursuit for external security.