Il fenomeno cooperativo in Estonia

In Estonia the rapidity of the transition has changed the face of the country in less than ten years.
After gaining independence from the Soviet Union , complete adherence to the principles of the free market economy was embraced, also in pursuance of the objectives indicated by the International Monetary Fund, such as liberalizing both domestic and foreign trade.
The process of transition is not complete yet: some infrastructure is still inadequate, strained diplomatic relations with Russia interfere with business relations, and economic development has not gone on homogeneously in all parts of the country.
In spite of that, we can confidently state that the small size of the territory, the entrepreneurship of its inhabitants, the strategic importance of a country that can act as a bridge between Western Europe and the Russian markets, and the close ties with the EU member states (especially Finland) enabled Estonia to overcome in the space of a few years the initial recession due to the change of the economic framework, to improve the standards of living and to change the main macroeconomic indicators, to the point that Estonia was admitted to the negotiating table for the future enlargement of the European Union.
What is the role of co-operatives in all that? That is the question tackled in this book.
From the analysis here carried out, the importance of co-operation at the beginning of the transition process is clear, as well as the persisting of this entrepreneurial form in some sectors, for example in agriculture, where the co-operative enterprise can boast a tradition from the very beginning of the independence period.

Paola Pagliani has graduated from the economic-oriented branch of the Faculty of Political Science of Bologna University and won the Alessandro Skuk grant on co-operation in East European countries. She is a tutor in the Microeconomics course of the Department of Economic Sciences