Towards modern STI policy-making in Estonia

longer-term clearly spelled out objectives, which would result in the consolidation of efforts in science, economy, and society at large. The author also aims to initiate a debate on what could be the bases for such a shared vision on Estonia’s future. Techno-economic paradigms and the development of capitalist economic system Common wisdom, shared by the entrepreneurs and liberal policy-makers throughout the 1990s world-wide suggests that the development of capitalist economy under the free open market regimen is fully automatic; nevertheless specific scenarios for the future beyond 2–3 years are considered extremely difficult to predict. However, all economic activities are not the same. There are some, which offer decreasing returns to the scale, and some which offer increasing returns, allowing this way for an improvement of living standards. One should never forget that new technology always creates asymmetric markets and distribution of knowledge. Specialisation pattern of the economy is therefore decisive for the future prosperity of the nation (Reinert 1999). Also, a more thorough look into the history of economic development over the last few centuries convinces that in the long perspective, capitalist economy does not develop randomly or aimlessly; it develops towards gradually increasing pro-ductivity. This development is not linear but dynamic with sudden leaps, which are caused by an extensive use of new technology with wide expansion potential triggering higher productivity, i.e. by the techno-economic paradigms (Perez 2002)