Plurality in Estonia

The book *Plurality* presents Estonia as a country "often cited as the most digitized democratic government". Yet no Estonian translation has been found. What stands out locally is the citizens' assembly Rahvakogu and the citizens' initiative website that grew out of it.

Estonia is known around the world as a country where much of dealing with the government can be done online. The book Plurality by Audrey Tang and E. Glen Weyl also returns to Estonia again and again. But how have Estonians themselves engaged with the book's ideas? On closer look, there is a small gap between how the book portrays Estonia and how people there see things.

In short

Plurality introduces Estonia as a country "often cited as the most digitized democratic government in the world", and gives it as an example of a country that has excelled in several aspects of ⿻ (Plurality) [1].

The research for this article, however, found no Estonian translation. No Estonian reporting on the book or on Tang was found either, but the sites of the main newspapers could not be fully searched, so it cannot be said that there is none. What stands out in local sources is the 2013 citizens' assembly Rahvakogu (People's Assembly in English) and the citizens' initiative website Rahvaalgatus.ee that grew out of it [5][6].

For example

The citizens' assembly Rahvakogu (2013). In 2012, a scandal known as "kilekotiraha" (plastic-bag money) brought people onto the streets [6]. According to Estonian Wikipedia, Rahvakogu grew out of a meeting convened by the president and was carried out by civil society activists and experts [5].

First, in January 2013, proposals were collected from citizens on the web. The think tank Praxis sorted the proposals, and experts analyzed their effects. Then, on April 6, a deliberation day was held in Tallinn. Estonian Wikipedia writes that 314 people took part and that 15 proposals came out of it [5]. An English article by ERR (reposted on the organizers' site), on the other hand, says that 16 proposals were supported, so the numbers do not match [7].

The citizens' initiative website Rahvaalgatus.ee. The proposal that won the most support on the deliberation day was to require parliament to consider any citizens' initiative backed by a certain number of people (for example, 25,000). It passed 226 to 12 [8]. According to Liia Hänni, one of the people who started Rahvakogu, parliament wrote citizens' initiatives into law in April 2014, and a web platform has been running since February 2015 [6].

On today's site, users can write a proposal → discuss it with others → collect digital signatures → submit it to parliament or a local government → follow what happens next [9]. The site is built on Citizen OS, which is open source (anyone can see and use the code) [10].

A point of contact with Tang (2019). Anett Linno of Citizen OS asked for Tang's help in building a community that brings together civic tech groups from many countries. Tang explained how g0v, Taiwan's civic tech community, came to use pol.is after Loomio, and pointed to the international networks Code for All and OGP (the Open Government Partnership) [11]. → Civic tech · Polis

In more detail

How the book portrays Estonia

Chapter 3-3 "The Lost Dao" in the English edition says that Estonia is "perhaps the leading example", that like Taiwan it has a strong history of Georgism (the idea of taxing land) and land taxes, and that it pioneered digital democracy earlier than almost any other country, starting in the late 1990s [1].

The same passage goes on, however, to say that none of these countries has institutionalized ⿻ approaches across sectors with the breadth and depth that Taiwan has [1]. The same chapter in the Traditional Mandarin edition is written differently: it sets the two countries side by side as models of ⿻, saying "兩個典範最為突出：愛沙尼亞和臺灣" (two models stand out: Estonia and Taiwan) [2].

Chapter 4-5 "Access" names Estonia, together with Taiwan and the Scandinavian nations, as a country that pioneered the principle of digital access as a foundational right [3]. It also introduces "mRiik", a new app launched by Estonia, as "largely inspired" by Diia, Ukraine's government app [3]. Chapter 2-0 lists "the heterogeneous digital democracies of India, Estonia, and Taiwan" as a technological future of its own, distinct from the PRC surveillance regime, the Russian hacking networks, the mainstream Western capitalist countries and others [4]. → Digital public infrastructure

The foundations of the digital state

According to Estonian Wikipedia, X-tee (X-Road in English) is a platform for exchanging data securely between government offices and with the private sector. NIIS, an organization set up together with Finland, develops the software jointly [12]. e-residentsus (e-residency) is a digital identity that lets people abroad use Estonia's electronic services; it began in 2014 [13].

In a 2024 conversation, Tang said that T-Road, Taiwan's data-exchange platform for government, is "an homage to the X-Road system of Estonia". Adding "I think", Tang said that Estonia shines because of its commitment to public code [14].

An e-state is not the same as e-democracy

In a 2018 article, Eesti Koostöö Kogu, the organization that runs Rahvaalgatus.ee, quoted Robert Krimmer, a professor at Tallinn University of Technology: "There is no e-democracy in Estonia!" The article says that two years of running the site have shown that this provocative remark, unfortunately, holds true. Its argument is that Estonia's e-state has so far centered on services such as elections, administration and health care [15].

So there is a gap between the book's Estonia, a pioneer of digital democracy, and the view of the people who run the platform there.

Talk of the Baltic states

A January 2026 announcement by SPRIND, a German federal agency, said that the Taiwanese model is spreading and that the Baltic and Scandinavian states are also strengthening democracy with digital tools [16]. At the DLD conference in Munich the next day, the speaker Zarah Bruhn said "Estonia is doing it", and Tang replied "Taiwan was like Estonia for radical participation" [17].

Neither, however, gave a concrete example. The research for this article found no primary source showing that the Estonian government has used Polis or other Taiwanese tools. What was found were Estonia's own developments, such as Rahvakogu and Rahvaalgatus.ee.

What is debated

Do many e-services mean deep democracy? As Krimmer's remark above shows, the people running the platform themselves say that the number of e-services and the depth of citizens' participation are separate things [15].
The weak points of a digital state. Lucas Kello, a researcher with a half-Estonian background on the father's side, said in a conversation with Tang that a digital state creates new opportunities but also vulnerabilities that can be exploited through cyberspace, adding "the Estonians are very clear about this" [18].
Assessments of Rahvakogu. Estonian Wikipedia writes that the citizens' assemblies of 2013 and 2017 did not fully follow international standards. It also reports criticism that the process before the web platform opened was not transparent, and criticism that the assembly calmed the public anger shown in the protests and drew attention away from the real problems [5].

Common misunderstandings

Is Tang an Estonian e-resident? The e-residency Tang spoke of acquiring in a 2023 interview was Lithuania's. About Estonia, Tang only mentioned joint maintenance of X-Road and that many Taiwanese friends are "Estonian e-residents" [19]. → Plurality in Lithuania

Where it fits in Plurality

In the book, Estonia appears mainly as a precedent for digital public infrastructure: in chapter 3-3 as "perhaps the leading example" among the countries' examples of ⿻, and in chapter 4-5 as an example of access and digital public services [1][3].

Citizens' initiatives and the citizens' assembly can be read alongside the book's discussion of digital democracy. The book itself, however, mentions neither Rahvakogu nor Rahvaalgatus.ee. In Estonia's case, the direction runs more from the book referring to Estonia than from the book's ideas reaching Estonia.

Articles on other countries and regions:

Sources

Plurality, 3-3 "The Lost Dao" (section "Nodes of light") — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/3-3/eng/ ［CC0］
Plurality, Traditional Mandarin edition, 3-3 〈我們遺忘的道〉 — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/3-3/zh-tw/ ［CC0］
Plurality, 4-5 "Access" — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/4-5/eng/ ［CC0］
Plurality, 2-0 "Information Technology and Democracy: A Widening Gulf" — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/2-0/eng/ ［CC0］
Estonian Wikipedia, "Rahvakogu" — https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahvakogu ［CC BY-SA 4.0］
Eesti Koostöö Kogu, "Liia Hänni rahvaalgatuse veebikodu sünnist" (2020-04-04) — https://kogu.ee/2020/04/04/liia-hanni-rahvaalgatuse-veebikodu-sunnist/
"People's Assembly results: lower election threshold, but no to direct presidential elections" (2013-04-06, repost of an ERR article) — https://kogu.ee/en/2013/04/06/peoples-assembly-results-lower-election-threshold-but-no-to-direct-presidential-elections/
"People's Assembly supports introducing popular initiative into law" (2013-04-07, repost of a Postimees in English article) — https://kogu.ee/en/2013/04/07/peoples-assembly-supports-introducing-popular-initiative-into-law/
Rahvaalgatus.ee, "Platvormist" — https://sisu.rahvaalgatus.ee/
Estonian Wikipedia, "Citizen OS" — https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_OS ［CC BY-SA 4.0］
2019-09-09 Interview with Anett Linno (transcript) — https://github.com/audreyt/transcript/blob/main/2019-09-09-Interview-with-Anett-Linno.md ［CC0］
Estonian Wikipedia, "X-tee" — https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-tee ［CC BY-SA 4.0］
Estonian Wikipedia, "E-residentsus" — https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-residentsus ［CC BY-SA 4.0］
2024-01-01 Interview with Microsoft Research, Part II (transcript) — https://github.com/audreyt/transcript/blob/main/2024-01-01-Interview-with-Microsoft-Research%2C-Part-II.md ［CC0］
Eesti Koostöö Kogu, "Rahvaalgatus.ee – yet another e-platform for civic engagement? No, a process of democratic renewal instead" (2018-02-13) — https://kogu.ee/2018/02/13/rahvaalgatus-ee-yet-another-e-platform-for-civic-engagement-no-a-process-of-democratic-renewal-instead/
SPRIND, "Deutschland, was nervt? Deutschland, was geht?" (2026-01-16) — https://www.sprind.org/worte/magazin/deutschland-was-geht
2026-01-17 From Taiwan to Germany: How Radical Participation Leapfrogs Public Trust (DLD Munich 2026, transcript) — https://github.com/audreyt/transcript/blob/main/2026-01-17-From-Taiwan-to-Germany-How-Radical-Participation-Leapfrogs-Public-Trust.md ［CC0］
2022-03-25 Conversation with Lucas Kello and Jason Hsu (transcript) — https://github.com/audreyt/transcript/blob/main/2022-03-25-Conversation-with-Lucas-Kello-and-Jason-Hsu.md ［CC0］
2023-01-13 Interview with BNS (transcript) — https://github.com/audreyt/transcript/blob/main/2023-01-13-Interview-with-BNS.md ［CC0］

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