Rein Taagepera facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Rein Taagepera
Taagepera in 2009
Born	(1933-02-28) February 28, 1933 (age 92) Tartu, Estonia
Education	Nuclear Engineering, University of Toronto (B.A. Sc, 1959) Physics, University of Delaware (Ph.D., 1965)
Awards	Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science (2008) APSA Longley Award (2003) APSA Hallett Award (1999) Estonian National Science Prize (1999) Tuglas Prize (1990) Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeriti Award (2013-14)
Chairman, Res Publica Party
Preceded by	None (founding chairman)
President, Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies

Rein Taagepera is an important Estonian political scientist and a former politician. He was born on February 28, 1933.

Rein Taagepera's Early Life and Education

Rein Taagepera was born in Tartu, Estonia. In 1944, when he was 11 years old, he had to leave Estonia. This was because the Soviet Union took control of Estonia.

He finished high school in Marrakech, Morocco. After that, he studied physics in Canada and the United States. He earned a degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Toronto in 1959. He also received a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Delaware in 1965.

Before becoming a professor, Taagepera worked in industry until 1970. He then studied international relations and became a political scientist. He taught at the University of California, Irvine for many years. Today, he is a professor emeritus at the University of Tartu in Estonia.

Rein Taagepera's Political Career

From 1986 to 1988, Rein Taagepera was the president of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies. This group helps people learn about the Baltic countries.

In 1991, he returned to Estonia. He helped start a new School of Social Sciences at the University of Tartu. This school later became a full faculty in 1994. He also became a professor of political science there.

Running for President

In 1991, Taagepera was part of the group that wrote Estonia's new constitution. In 1992, he decided to run for president of Estonia. He ran against Arnold Rüütel and Lennart Meri. Lennart Meri won the election.

Taagepera came in third place, getting 23% of the votes. He later said that one reason he ran was to take votes away from Rüütel. This helped Lennart Meri win the presidency.

Leading a Political Party

In 2003, Taagepera became the first chairman of a new political party called Res Publica. This party won the general elections that year. It led the government with Prime Minister Juhan Parts.

Taagepera wanted the party to stay in the middle of the political ideas. He even said he was a center-left politician. However, he left the party in 2005. He was not happy with how the party was being led and how it moved more to the right. In 2006, Res Publica joined with another party.

Rein Taagepera's Scholarly Work

Rein Taagepera is known for his academic work on electoral systems. These are the rules for how elections work. He uses a lot of math and models in his research. This is because he studied physics before. He believes that political science can be more scientific by using numbers and predictions.

He wrote a book called Predicting Party Sizes: The Logic of Simple Electoral Systems (2007). In this book, he shared his ideas about how electoral systems work.

He also wrote Making Social Sciences More Scientific. The Need for Predictive Models (2008). This book explains his special way of thinking, which he calls "logical quantitative modeling." He also studied how large empires grow and shrink over time.

Besides his work on elections, Taagepera has written about Estonian and Baltic history, politics, and culture. He has also written stories. His book Livland-Leaveland won the Tuglas Prize in 1990.

Key Publications

• Size and Duration of Empires: Systematics of Size, 1978
• Estonia: Return to independence, 1993
• The Baltic States: Years of Dependence, 1940-1990, 2nd edn. 1993, co-author
• Predicting Party Sizes: The Logic of Simple Electoral Systems, 2007
• Making Social Sciences More Scientific. The Need for Predictive Models, 2008

Awards and Recognition

Rein Taagepera has received many important awards for his work. These include:

• The Hallett (1999) and Longley (2003) Awards from the American Political Science Association.
• The Estonian National Science Prize in Social Science (1999).
• The Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science (2008), which is a very important award in political science.
• The Karl Deutsch Award (2016).