Poliitika ja valitsemine digiajastul – Master´s theses

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A radical right lived ideology: an in-depth case study of the ideology of Sinine Äratus
(Tartu Ülikool, 2024) Jezierska, Isabel Mari; Piirimäe, Eva, juhendaja; Wierenga, Louis John, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This thesis answered the research question “What is the nature and what are the core features of the ideology of Sinine Äratus?”. The decision to investigate the ideology of Sinine Äratus, a radical right youth organisation associated with the radical right Conservative People’s Party of Estonia, is multifaceted. Firstly, it serves as a compelling case for exploring the ideology of a radical right youth organisation, offering a rich source of information. Additionally, Sinine Äratus is situated in Eastern Europe, has global affiliations with other radical right organisations and activists, and has the potential to influence its mother party. To answer the research question, the author used dual-method approach. First, through theory-driven content analysis, the author demonstrated that the ideology of Sinine Äratus encompasses three key characteristics of radical right ideology: authoritarianism, anti-democracy, and nationalism, as defined by Elisabeth Carter. This confirmed that Sinine Äratus indeed is a radical right ideology. Second, the author employed data-driven qualitative content analysis along with morphological analysis to delve into the concepts, arguments connecting these concepts, and the underlying values that constitute the ideology of Sinine Äratus. The identified concepts were categorised into three themes: ethnonationalism, national independence, and environment. Using two different methods for studying the ideology of Sinine Äratus not only allowed the author to reconstruct the ideology of Sinine Äratus from two different perspectives but also allowed the author to demonstrate what researchers would fail to capture if they were to just use one method for studying an organisation’s ideology.
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Aid as an authoritarian gift: the associations between the Chinese aid and democracy
(Tartu Ülikool, 2025) Zhang, Yang; Mölder, Martin, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
As China’s global economic footprint deepens, growing attention is paid to how its aid and loan programs affect regime trajectories in recipient states. While existing scholarship often speculates that Chinese engagement supports authoritarian durability or undermines democratic institutions, it frequently relies on aggregated aid flows and overlooks variation across regime types and aid modalities. This study addresses that gap by analyzing data from globally harmonized sources, AidData, the China Africa Research Initiative, and Polity V, to assess the relationship between Chinese economic engagement and changes in democratic quality. The findings reveal that, in the African context, higher levels of Chinese aid are consistently associated with increased probabilities of regime autocratization despite volatility detected in the permutation. However, in the global sample, this association is less uniform; interaction models show that hybrid regimes face the greatest risk of autocratization, with even modest increases in aid predicting higher autocratization probabilities. Sectoral disaggregation further refines this pattern: aid directed toward the extractive industries, particularly mining, correlates strongly with autocratization trajectories, whereas aid in transportation sectors is linked to weak democratic improvement, presenting modeling volatility. In addition, the presence of Chinese contract labor exhibits a negative association with autocratization, suggesting a potential, albeit limited, association with democratic resilience. Jointly, these results emphasize that the political effects of Chinese aid are not uniform but instead vary systematically by sector and initial regime type, challenging approaches that treat Chinese aid as politically monolithic.
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Algorithm of interest: a qualitative analysis of the public debates in Dutch, UK, and Australian cases of algorithmic decision-making scandals
(Tartu Ülikool, 2024) Agirbas, Emre; Homburg, Vincentius Martinus Franciscus, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This thesis examines scandals arising from algorithmic decision-making systems and the ensuing discourse, focusing on the concept of fairness in public debates. Three cases from Australia, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, where algorithmic systems were implemented in public institutions, are analyzed. Through qualitative research utilizing thematic analysis, textual data from e-petitions and media documents is thoroughly examined. The study reveals procedural and distributive justice as central themes in discussions surrounding fairness. Despite extensive exploration of fairness in political philosophy, empirical investigations remain limited. This thesis seeks to address this gap by empirically investigating the role of fairness in algorithmic decision-making scandals, highlighting its significance in contemporary discourse. Through the application of justice as fairness theory, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the challenges and implications of algorithmic decision-making systems in public institutions. By examining real-world cases, it sheds light on the complexities of fairness in algorithmic governance, offering insights that can inform both policy and academic discourse.
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Analyzing the populist voter in Europe: the effects of political news and internet usage on voting behaviour
(Tartu Ülikool, 2022) Apaestegui Cam, Luis Alberto; Mölder, Martin, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
Populism is one of the most researched topics in the past decade. There are many factors that can have an effect on the populist vote. It has been claimed that political news and internet use are some of them. Regarding the former, the mediatization and sensationalization of politics alongside the interdependence between political parties and the media could have an effect on people, which eventually might influence their voting behaviour. Regarding the latter, social media algorithms and unregulated content creates echo chambers and filter bubbles that are used by populists who are experts at using online tools to spread their ideas to a vast audience; which could translate into cast a vote for a populist party. Hence, this thesis analyses the effects of the media’s political news (PN) and internet usage (IU) on the populist voter to try to see if their consumption could be linked to voting for a populist party. It also tries to discover if rightwing populist voters (in comparison with left-wing populist and centrist populist voters) are those who spend more time watching political news and using the internet. In order to analyze this, two sets of logistic regression were performed. The first included the main variables of the study, PN and IU, and the second model was applied with the inclusion of 10 additional demographic and attitudinal variables. Each regression was tested in 22 European countries. Depending on types of populism found in each country, the regression was tested in right wing, left wing and centrist populist scenarios. In order to see which kind of populist voter consumes more news and internet, a t-test was carried out to compare the means for the groups of voters. The overall findings showed that the PN and IU do not have a significant effect, except for what can be considered an isolated scenario. Nonetheless, the full model permits the discovery of other findings that will help to give an overview of the behavioral traits of the populist voter.
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Augmenting public sector data-driven decision support systems with expert knowledge: case of OTT
(Tartu Ülikool, 2022) Leets, Peeter; Solvak, Mihkel, juhendaja; Võrk, Andres, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
Public sector data-driven decision support systems are uniquely challenging to design due to the ramifications they have on the societal level. Accountability and ethical considerations require these systems to arrive at an equilibirium between accuracy and interpretability amid various implementation and data constraints. While these systems need to contribute to legitimate governance through reasoned and explainable decision-making, they also need to accurately model the policy outcomes they were designed to support. Inopportunely, inductive data-driven systems struggle to solve problems that rely on heuristic input. In this thesis, a particular knowledge engineering technique was adopted to augment a public sector Machine Learning decision support tool with domain expert knowledge. The case in question is OTT – a job-seeker profiling tool used by the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund to predict the long-term unemployment risks of their clients. Upon augmenting it with knowledge from caseworkers and data scientists associated with the project, some evidence was found that accounting for expert knowledge in probabilistic data-driven models can lead to a model that performs better on new out-of-sample data and is more in line with underlying domain rules. This yields important implications on the future of Machine Learning in the public sector as it opens up new potential use cases in avenues where 1) labelled training data is hard to come by, 2) a more generalizable model is preferred due to frequent changes in the surrounding context, 3) a model has to perfectly mimic domain logic for interpretability and explainability reasons.
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“Best practices” vs. tailor-made reforms: an exploratory case study of agencification and its effects on policymaking capacity in Ukraine in 2016-2021
(Tartu Ülikool, 2023) Yevdokymova, Oleksandra; Muhhina, Kristina, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
International aid agencies and organisations have been promoting good governance and institutional development for several decades. Recently, however, the approach of importing “best practices” from developed Western countries and applying them as blueprints elsewhere has received substantial scepticism and criticism. Both academics and policymakers now emphasise the importance of contextualising and tailoring institutional reforms. They aim to find a good fit for each country and achieve long-term sustainable results rather than quick wins. One of the aid recipient countries for which the change of approach to institutional development is relevant is Ukraine. Among many other reforms, it is now undergoing agencification – a transformation of ministries into analytical units, freed from excessive and duplicated administrative functions. This thesis explores the case of agencification in Ukraine, endorsed and coordinated by the EU and the OECD’s SIGMA programme. As an exploratory case study, it investigates how the tailoring of agencification reform affects the policymaking capacity of ministries as its main intended result. The researcher conducted document analysis, desk research and in-depth interviews with public administration experts and practitioners. As a result, the study suggests four nuanced hypotheses which need to be further explored and verified in future research on the relationship between agencification reform tailoring and the policymaking capacity of ministries in developing countries.
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Between Brussels and Moscow: authoritarian learning as a tool of power consolidation in Georgia
(Tartu Ülikool, 2026) Rogava, Nikoloz; Kursani, Shpend, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This thesis examines how authoritarian learning functioned as a tool of authoritarian consolidation in Georgia after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Georgian Dream maintained formal pro-European positions while adopting anti-Western, illiberal strategies increasingly similar to those used in Russia, Belarus, and Hungary. The central puzzle for this research is how authoritarian learning contributed to this process of consolidation. The study uses interpretivist qualitative research methods, combining discourse analysis of Georgian Dream’s elite, a secondary literature-based review of three reference states, and nine semi-structured interviews. The thesis finds that authoritarian learning played a crucial role in consolidating authoritarian rule. Firstly, Georgian Dream selectively adapted authoritarian logic to the domestic context. War, peace, and sovereignty narratives transformed public pro-European positions into skepticism, helping the Georgian Dream legitimize its authoritarian decisions. To achieve that, the strongest evidence of authoritarian learning, “Foreign Agents Legislation,” was used. This law institutionalized suspicion towards civil society, media, and opposition actors. The narratives mentioned express an authoritarian repertoire that helped Georgian Dream legitimize its language for regime survival. However, beyond language, authoritarian learning was important on a practical level, reducing the costs of experimentation associated with authoritarian decisions. Beyond domestic consolidation, authoritarian learning also affected global and regional politics. Georgian Dream’s survival sabotaged Georgia’s European path and increased Russia's influence in the region.
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Beyond seat share: evaluating voting-power indices in government formation
(Tartu Ülikool, 2026) Samoilova, Sofia; Mölder, Martin, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This thesis evaluates whether cooperative game-theoretic voting-power indices improve empirical explanations of government formation relative to models based solely on parliamentary seat share. While seat share is the dominant measure of bargaining power in the coalition formation literature, it captures numerical size rather than strategic necessity - two quantities that diverge substantially in fragmented multiparty legislatures. Four indices are examined: the Banzhaf Power Index and Shapley-Shubik Value, which compute pivotality across all winning coalitions, and the Deegan-Packel and Holler-Packel indices, which restrict attention to minimal winning coalitions only. The analysis covers 4,939 party-election observations from 626 elections across 37 parliamentary democracies between 1945 and 2023, using nested logistic regression models evaluated through four complementary criteria: McFadden pseudo-R², likelihood ratio test, Bayesian Information Criterion, and area under the ROC curve. The results are asymmetric. The all-coalitions family consistently outperforms seat share across both outcome variables and all four criteria. The minimal-winning-coalition family does not, because its restriction to minimal winning coalitions embeds an assumption about rational behaviour that the empirical record systematically violates. For researchers operationalising bargaining power in coalition research, the Banzhaf or Shapley-Shubik index is the appropriate structural measure; seat share, while interpretable, is a less precise substitute.
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BRICS's role in influencing the state capacity through sanctions-proofing: a comparative analysis of Russia, Iran, and Venezuela (2010–2022)
(Tartu Ülikool, 2024) Haiduk, Hanna; Wierenga, Louis John, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
State capacity, a pivotal concept in political science, has garnered extensive scholarly attention for its crucial role in shaping human progress. This thesis explores the origins, significance, and measurement of state capacity, emphasizing the influence of foreign policy tools, particularly economic sanctions. Initially, the study delineates the state's definition, tracing its historical evolution and examining its core components as articulated by Tilly and Mann. It then focuses on state capacity, defined by McAdam et al., as the degree of control state agents exercise over persons, activities, and resources within their territorial jurisdiction. The research investigates how economic sanctions, as a coercive foreign policy tool, impact the state capacity of targeted authoritarian regimes. Given the prevalent use of sanctions by the United States, the study selects three case countries—Russia, Iran, and Venezuela—examining the US-imposed secondary and oil sector sanctions. This focus is justified by the significant role of oil in these countries' economies and the global dominance of the US dollar. State capacity is analyzed through three dimensions: coercive, administrative, and extractive, relevant to the context of authoritarian regimes. The study introduces BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) as an explanatory variable, assessing its potential to mitigate the adverse effects of sanctions and support the sanctioned states' economic resilience. Employing qualitative research methods, including process tracing analysis, the thesis aims to elucidate the causal mechanisms linking sanctions, BRICS' interventions, sanctions-proofing tactics and changes in state capacity. Data sources include OFAC for sanctions, OPEC and Statista for oil market fluctuations, and the World Bank for state capacity indicators. The anticipated outcome suggests that countries with strong economic ties to BRICS will better withstand sanctions, maintaining more stable state capacity compared to those without such support. This research contributes to understanding the interplay between international economic policies and state capacities in authoritarian states.
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Convergence or adaptation of cybersecurity policies: insights from Chile and Estonia
(Tartu Ülikool, 2024) Mendoza Schmitz, Catalina; Muhhina, Kristina, juhendaja; Homburg, Vincentius Martinus Franciscus; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
The topic of this thesis is cybersecurity policies, particularly whether, how and why there may be differences and similarities between Estonia and Chile in the parliamentary debate. This study concludes that there are similarities, like the use of the EU directive policy or other cases, and differences, such as how the institutional system worked in each case. An explanation for this is that both respect international organisations and the policy they produce and that similar cases may produce emulation. However, internal elements may still have a significant role to play. This conclusion was formulated using policy convergence theory (PCT) and punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) as a theoretical foundation in a small-n, qualitative country comparison using parliamentary debates, policy documents and additional interview transcripts as data sources. This thesis ends with an overall reflection, lessons learned and recommendations for future research in this area. like the weight of PET in the elements discussed in the parliament, other factors that can contribute to the policy change in the domain of cybersecurity and further questions.
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Corruption, populism, and polarization: unraveling the causes of democratic backsliding in 68 countries
(Tartu Ülikool, 2024) Usmanov, Asilbek; Mölder, Martin, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This thesis examines the dynamics of democratic backsliding, focusing on the potential impacts of affective polarization, populism, and political corruption, with inflation as a control variable. Utilizing three primary datasets: the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) dataset, the V-Dem’s Party Dataset, and the World Bank’s Global Database of Inflation (GDI), the study conducts both univariate and multivariate regression analyses. The findings confirm that affective polarization significantly predicts changes in both electoral and deliberative democracy, supporting the hypothesis that increased polarization can lead to democratic backsliding. However, the relationships between populism and liberal democracy, and political corruption and egalitarian democracy, were not statistically significant at the conventional levels. Despite these limitations, this study contributes to the literature on democratic backsliding by highlighting the potential impact of political corruption, affective polarization, populism, and inflation on various forms of democracy. The findings underscore the complexity of democratic backsliding and the need for further research in this area. As democratic backsliding continues to be a pressing issue in many parts of the world, it is important to understand these dynamics. Future research could benefit from expanding the dataset to include more countries and a longer timeframe. This would increase the number of observations and potentially lead to more robust findings. Additionally, future studies could consider incorporating other variables that might influence democratic backsliding, such as institutional strength, and cultural factors.
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Democracy and trends in wealth inequality: a global empirical study
(Tartu Ülikool, 2022) Smith, Joshua J.; Mölder, Martin, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
Effective democracy relies on the political equality of individuals, which is in turn influenced by wealth inequality levels. However, within-country wealth inequality has reached extreme levels in the world today and continues to rise. Conclusive information on whether democracies are effectively reducing or limiting wealth inequality as compared to non-democracies is currently lacking. Here I show that generally countries with high levels of democracy are not any more likely to reduce or limit wealth inequality than non-democratic states, using a rigorous methodology and data from 146 countries. Conversely, I also find that two specific aspects related to democracy, strong and independent elected regional government and widespread respect for civil liberties, do function to reduce or limit wealth inequality. My results demonstrate that democracy is in need of certain reforms to both increase political equality and limit wealth inequality. Besides providing empirical support for the practice of federalism as well as policies protecting civil liberties for the disadvantaged, this thesis also examines reasoning for why democracy may not be functioning to reduce or limit wealth inequality, and relevant policy recommendations are highlighted.
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Democratic legitimacy of algorithmic public services across citizen–system interfaces: the case of Bürokratt’s algorithmic governance in Estonia (2020–2025)
(Tartu Ülikool, 2026) Sibata Haag França, Ana Beatriz; Muhhina, Kristina, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This thesis examines the degree of democratic legitimacy of Bürokratt’s governance arena that involves the algorithmic mediation of public services in Estonia between 2020 and 2025. Bürokratt is analysed as an interoperable, LLM-based virtual assistant that aims to facilitate citizens’ access to public services and strengthen Estonia’s digital government infrastructure. The thesis combines literature on algorithmic governance, transparency and legitimacy with the framework of democratic anchorage in governance networks. Methodologically, it adopts a qualitative single-case study design based on public documents and public-facing textual materials that directly mention Bürokratt. The corpus includes government strategies, policy documents, public webpages, technical reports, European Union materials, academic studies, opinion articles and newspaper articles. The analysis assesses Bürokratt’s governance across four anchorage points: democratically elected politicians, participating groups and organisations, territorially defined citizenry, and democratic rules and norms. The findings show that Bürokratt’s democratic legitimacy is institutionally strong but democratically uneven. The strongest evidence appears in its anchorage in elected politicians and politically accountable institutions, especially through ministerial sponsorship, national AI strategies, agenda-setting and public-sector coordination. The evidence is more limited regarding participating groups and organisations, where actors appear mainly as implementers, adopters, or technical partners rather than as representatives connected to membership bases. In the citizenry anchorage, citizens are highly visible as users and beneficiaries of improved public services, but much less visible as actors able to participate in, contest or influence the system’s governance. Democratic rules and norms appear only partially, mainly through stakeholder involvement, openness, and references to rights protection, but are not consistently translated into explicit procedures for deliberation, justification, or contestation. The thesis concludes that Bürokratt’s legitimacy is largely constructed through state capacity, service efficiency and Estonia’s broader digital government narrative. Its democratic anchorage remains more limited where legitimacy would require clearer citizen influence, membership-based representation and visible mechanisms of public justification.
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"Did we go too far?": Post-incumbency electoral performance after partnering with populist radical right in Europe 1999-2023
(Tartu Ülikool, 2024) Astudillo Laureda, Eduardo Alonso; Reiljan, Andres, juhendaja; Mölder, Martin, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This thesis examines the electoral consequences for the political parties that decided to collaborate in executive coalitions with Populist Radical Right Parties (PRRPs) in Europe. It addresses the need to understand the implications of these political alignments, given the growing frequency of such coalitions. Using a large-N quantitative analysis and linear regression model, this research analyzes electoral data from eleven European countries to explore the strategic implications of coalition formation with PRRPs. Even though the study reveals that there is no consistent impact and direction on overall electoral costs for forming such coalitions, the effect changes depending on a party's position on the left-right spectrum. The thesis finds that right-leaning parties face uncertain immediate electoral fates post-coalition, while left-leaning parties will perceive a negative electoral impact when entering a coalition with PRRPs. The findings have important implications for the study of multi-party competition as they challenge expectations regarding accommodative strategies and the efficiency of the cordon sanitaire. The research highlights the complex dynamics of ideological alignment, voter behavior, and the challenges of balancing core values against the need for strategic coalition-building.
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Digital adaptive governance: the response to the wartime crises in Ukraine
(Tartu Ülikool, 2026) Goglidze, Tornike; Khutkyy, Dmytro, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
The thesis presents research about adaptive digital governance as a response to the wartime crisis in Ukraine. The study aims to understand the patterns of adaptive governance and digital transformation in public governance and service delivery in Ukraine, and analyse their capabilities to respond to wartime crisis needs. The research purpose examines the extent to which digital services were associated with adaptive governance and the observable manifestations of potential wartime crisis resilience. The thesis employs qualitative research methods: document analysis, content analysis, and semi-structured interviews with experts in the field to answer the central research question: to what extent did wartime digital public services support adaptive governance and observable manifestations of crisis resilience in Ukraine from February 2022 to December 2025? The study utilises adaptive governance theory as its main theoretical framework, complemented by polycentric governance. The research analyses the combination of adaptive governance and digitalisation and its relationship to digital public services in challenging, non-ordinary circumstances. This study can be considered a contribution to the literature, aiming to enrich contemporary academic scholarship, as it addresses a topic that is underrepresented in the literature.
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Digital authoritarianism and political settlements: a theory-building framework for understanding regime survival strategies in Eastern European hybrid regimes
(Tartu Ülikool, 2026) Shavdatuashvili, Davit; Muhhina, Kristina, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This thesis examined how personalised political settlement types shape digital authoritarian strategies for regime survival in Eastern European hybrid regimes. Existing scholarship on regime survival, digital authoritarianism, and political settlements analysis addresses different dimensions of this problem but lacks a framework connecting the structural configuration of ruling coalitions to the organisation of digital governance tools. The thesis developed a six-layer analytical framework bridging these three literatures and conducted a plausibility probe of its first three layers through a structured, focused comparison of Georgia and Serbia across 2022–2024, combining qualitative document analysis with quantitative triangulation. The findings indicated that settlement type shaped not which digital tools regimes possessed but how overlapping repertoires were organised into distinct configurations. Serbia's personalised dominant settlement produced a knowing–behaviour operative axis, where surveillance directly generated behavioural compliance through chilling effects and institutional intimidation, with beliefs serving a complementary role. Georgia's personalised competitive settlement produced a belief–behaviour sequential linkage, where narrative construction delegitimised organised outsiders before legal-administrative instruments codified those categories into enforceable obligations. The enabling logic also diverged: Serbia's digital means were institutionally embedded through captured institutions, while Georgia's were legally constructed, application-layer, and functionally deniable. The probe found evidence consistent with three propositions and partially consistent with the fourth, which required qualification due to observational limitations on insider targeting in secondary sources. The findings also generated refinements: knowing can itself become disciplinary under dominant conditions, deniability varies by governance function rather than by settlement type, and legal construction and institutional capture operate in sequence rather than as alternatives. The framework offers a structural explanation for variation in digital authoritarian configurations and identifies directions for geographic extension, methodological deepening, and full operationalisation.
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Digital democracy in Europe: service design facilitating e-participation platforms
(Tartu Ülikool, 2024) Sheremet, Yuliia; Khutkyy, Dmytro, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This study investigates the impact of service design on citizen engagement in e-participation platforms within the context of digital democracy in Europe. With technological advancements significantly altering political processes and democratic engagement, this thesis explores how service design can facilitate citizen participation on digital platforms. The research encompasses a comparative analysis of eight e-participation platforms across Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Iceland, France, Scotland, and Ireland. Using a mixed-methods approach, including manual qualitative platform analysis, reports review, and expert surveys, the study identifies key factors in service design influencing user engagement and satisfaction. Findings highlight the importance of user-friendly interfaces, accessibility features, and robust feedback mechanisms in enhancing platform effectiveness. The study provides recommendations for optimizing service design to improve citizen engagement and support democratic processes, ultimately contributing to the development of more effective e-participation platforms in Europe.
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Effect of societal culture on women empowerment in the Panchayati Raj system in India
(Tartu Ülikool, 2024) Malik, Alpana; Kilp, Alar, juhendaja; Bhatti, Rampal, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This case study focuses on assessing the impact of societal cultures on women's empowerment within the Panchayati system in India, particularly in the Khanpur Kalan and Ganwari villages of Sonipat district, Haryana. Employing a qualitative approach with openended interviews, the research explores the cultural factors influencing gender treatment in both the Panchayat and village contexts. Thematic content analysis, guided by Hofstede’s Dimensions Theory of Culture and Kabeer’s Instrumental Model, identifies four main themes: Cultural factors in the Panchayat system, Cultural factors in the village, Village empowerment determinants, and Council empowerment determinants. The study reveals a dominance of masculine cultures, emphasizing gender roles. Despite women having access to resources, findings indicate insufficient empowerment, with low agency and achievement status. Informal cultures within Panchayats and villages significantly impact women's participation and efficiency in the studied region.
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Environmental co-creation: barriers to codesigning public value in Estonia
(Tartu Ülikool, 2024) Luud, Elli-Maria; Muhhina, Kristina, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This research looks into the co-production/creation landscape of Estonia and, more specifically, into public value creation. The focus of this study is on the barriers that societal actors encounter while engaging in the co-production process. The public value perceptions of societal actors engaged in co-production are considered. Drawing from literature about coproduction and public value, semi-structured interviews were conducted using four environmentally focused case studies. These case studies investigated between March and April of 2024 are the World Cleanup Day (2018 - present date), Tallinn’s Citizens’ Assembly for a Green Capital (2023), East-Viru County Green Plan (2020 - 2021) and Foodsharing Tartu (2019 - present date). The interviews were complemented by document analysis. The research identifies seven barriers to co-creation of public value in Estonia. These are the need for a common goal, recourses, observable outcomes, bureaucracy issues and need for change, the lack of community, language barriers and disregarding digital tools. In the final section of this thesis, a new operational framework for Estonian co-creation proposes mitigation strategies for these perceived barriers.
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Gender blind spots? Network structures and gender in smart mobility: Bangkok and Khon Kaen, Thailand
(Tartu Ülikool, 2024) Thitasut, Kavisara; Muhhina, Kristina, juhendaja; Pääbo, Heiko, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
Adding to the critiques of smart city planning being gender-blind, the issue of gender and mobility persists. Network governance, a collaborative approach involving diverse actors, presents a potential solution. Theoretically, this non-hierarchical structure fosters inclusive policy design. This research addresses a critical gap in literature by examining how network structures influence the integration of gender considerations in smart mobility programs. Feminist urbanism and network theory inform this study. Employing a qualitative approach with coding techniques, the research investigated smart mobility programs in Bangkok and Khon Kaen, Thailand. Data included interviews with nine informants across four stakeholder groups and 17 relevant documents. While network structures differed across the cases, the analysis revealed no significant variation in the strategies for integrating gender considerations. These findings highlight the need to focus on understanding gender in their respective policy arena, within networks, regardless of structure. The research concludes with policy recommendations for designing more gender-responsive smart mobility programs.

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