Making Identity Count: Estonia 1995

Abstract

In 1995, hegemonic identity discourses were centred on the market economy and nationalism. Neoliberal market hegemony was primarily (re)produced by elites and remained unchallenged by popular discourses, which generally took market reasoning and meritocratic justice for granted. Instead, public concerns focused on increasing social status stratification and the welfare state, with democracy often assessed on the basis of socio-economic outcomes rather than formal parliamentary institutions and being identified more strongly than the elite with traditions, conservative values and rural life. Nationalism functioned as a true ‘collective identity’, shared and positively valued by both elites and the masses. In particular, ethnic and cultural nationalism served as a filter through which contemporary and past periods of independence, as well as the most relevant historic Others (Imperial Russia and Baltic Germans), were evaluated.