Recent in-depth analysis of the costs of the election manifesto promises of all the political parties in Estonia revealed proposals which would cost money vastly exceeded those which would bring in revenue. Whilst this was not surprising, writes Rauno Vinni, many political parties have also offered a reduction in bureaucracy and cutting back of officialdom. But would such state reform actually help to solve the shortage of resources? There is a strange paradox where reducing bureaucracy actually costs money, making it difficult to afford to reduce said bureaucracy.
All political parties are promising new services at these elections, and large-scale investment into key areas like education, health, international and external security, social policy etc. However, the gulf between how much implementing these costs, and the potential which could be reaped from them, is so great, that merely trimming back the state apparatus is not going to be enough to garner the resources needed.
