Estonia | The Digital State

Most state rely on paper bureaucracy to ensure that the state can function and provide services. Paper bureaucracy has been part and parcel of how we maintain states and corporations since the Chinese invented the first paper bureaucracy systems of management 3000 years ago.
But as you all probably know, bureaucracy kinda sucks. It costs a lot to maintain, and in the worst cases bureaucracy can turn a state into a labyrinthian monstrosity that can be near to impossible to navigate.

Estonia is a Baltic country that in recent years has been embarking on reform programs that are intended to change this. Estonia is a “Paperless state” meaning a state that has effectively removed all paper from it’s bureaucracy and replaced it with a digital state structure. In this short video I would like to introduce you to the digital state and argue for it.

Eastory's channel: @Eastory

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[KhAnubis]

e-Government? e-Voting? e-Marriage? Might as well call the country e-Stonia

[Stoneworks]

Estonia's government runs solely on patreon and kickstarter funds

[tehexosus]

Estonian here: It's not really a 10 min filing your taxes, it's more like go to a website and push a button. And now you don't really need your ID-card for anything except maybe as a gun licence proof. Everything done through smartphone, strangely even signing digi-docs. So you don't even need an ID card reader which was annoying.

[RobVice]

As an Estonian, every time I travel somewhere I am just completely baffled how behind pretty much everyone is in digitalisation and just having things work properly

[ukuexealt]

As an estonian I was completely baffeled, when I realized that in other countries people can't do a majority of things online that we can. I sincerly hope that you guys will also go more digital in the future! Very well made video :D

[blackwingedangel]

As a German, what Estonia managed to do in 2007 sounds like a utopic vision to our ridiculous and extensive and ineffective bureaucracy.
So Chapeau Estonians!

[MaikuBoy]

Tax declaration in Estonia is riddiculous. I thought I did something wrong because it only took me one login, and 5 button presses.

[SteveAkaDarktimes]

Jesus christ the speed and pace of these innovations is ridiculous. and since they focused on making EVERYONE tech-literate in coding, they have the sheer manpower to code these things reliable with a 10 year headstart to every other country in the world.
I'm Swiss, and I can do my taxes online, but digitalisation of literally anything else, especially citizen E-ID faces a monstrous slog of reactionary, ignorant pushback. I'm incredibly jealous.
Estonians should be rightfully proud of their accomplishments.

[spectacles-dm]

Estonia has long been one of my personal favorite bureaucratic case studies. Just excellent execution of public policy on so many levels and an inspiring story all around. Great to see them getting some love. Great video, Kraut!

[spicynoodles]

As a Latvian I’m incredibly happy for our Estonians brothers. Hope Latvia follows in the same example 🇱🇻❤️🇪🇪

[ratoh]

Estonia also founded the Digital Nations group, which is an attempt to spread its digitalization ideals to other governments. There are currently 10 members, Estonia, Israel, Korea, New Zealand, and the UK are the founding members with Canada, Uruguay, Mexico, and Portugal joining in 2018 and Denmark joining in 2019.
As a Dane, I have personally experienced the benefits of many of the initiatives that were described in this video. The vast majority of government interaction is entirely paperless, the only one I can think of that isn't is our elections are still paper. I am sure there are others but I can't think of them. The only reason I remembered that one is that I just got the electoral card yesterday in the mail.

[GL]

As a german Living in Estonia for about 14 year's now, the sheer difference between Estonia and Germany on this subject is astonishing and makes me honestly sad.

[gonzalomeadearanda]

take a shot for every time Kraut says "digital"

[erik]

Estonia may be the smallest of us three, but they are doing a superb job at schooling us how a true modern state looks like. That's no small achievement. So proud of our little sister. 😎

[prtl]

my friend says "and we're supposed to be a digital state" when he can't pay the public transportation fee via mobile :D

[MrMainA]

I am a simple Lithuanian. I see Estonia, I like the video.

[llsamtapaill-ocsh]

You would be surprised how much Estonia helped india figure things out. A lot of Estonian companies and ministers have actually helped a lot with digitization of India. Love them so much 💕

[xxtheeunuchxx]

When I went to the Netherlands to study a few years ago, I moved in with a Dutch guy and two Estonians. Already I was baffled by the life the Dutch were living, for example with their digital ID numbers that expedite many public services, and I remember getting clowned by my Dutch roommate for bringing cash money from home. As such, we were both surprised at how irritated our Estonian roommates were with Dutch institutions and bureaucracy. Again, to me it already felt as if I had travelled at least 10 years into the future. When we all went on vacation to Estonia together the veil finally lifted, and us two westerners experienced how advanced this country was in comparison to ours. I distinctly remember how one of the Estonian guys logged into the public healthcare service to retrieve some documents, the equivalents of which I knew I'd have to plow through several centimetres of paperwork to find in my physical folders back home.
If there was any doubt, yes I am from Germany, and my employers use fax daily

[BigGuyLev]

As a Hungarian, I'm really happy that you made this video!
As our common language family, it's like we are cousins that have been seperated by history and geography.
When the Soviet Union fell Estonia started out of an arguably worse situation than Hungary but now, they're beating us in every metric by far. Gdp/capita, life expectancy, fertility rate, they've got euro, good democratic institutions, they're staunch members of NATO and the European Union.
It's so wild to me and I envy the estonians for successfully building a modern liberal democracy.
I think what should've been also mentioned in the video is Estonia's educational system. It's super strong, highly focused on business and ofc tech.
As a Hungarian and with out, ,illiberal democracy" by Orbán our educational systen is in shambles and we've become so so much dependent on foreign capital. Wish we could copy the Estonian model and create an effective state system, with good education that encourages the creation of our own businesses. I'm confident we could become a great country in a few decades for many reasons, but it breaks my heart that instead our leaders have built completely in the other direction and have totally embraced the authoritarian style of ruling, fueled solely by corruption.

It's also interesting how in Hungary we often hear that we're going catch up to Austria. We hear that since the 19th century and now Orbán wants to do that by 2030.
It's painfully dumb and we should embrace what we're good in. Or at least look for positive examples in the former Eastern Bloc, like Estonia.

[sandermesila]

The tax rate was increased to 22% in 2024. This is because of some poor management during the corona crisis. And while the tax rate has been flat, then the state loves to play with excise taxes, especially fuel. Hence goods can be relatively costly at times.

Education is also something that is constantly being praised, although the salaries of teachers are at times criminal, and there is a noticable shortage of teachers in the country. Many teachers we have are also from soviet times, so some of them have strange ways of teaching.

But, overall I love my country. Took me 2 minutes to order a new European Health Insurance card for example.

Edit: my mistake, VAT was increased, not income tax. Income tax is still 20%.