ABSTRACT
The Baltic nations began their statehood in the wake of the First World War as progressive liberal democracies. This chapter focuses on Estonia, while making some comparisons with parallel developments in Latvia. Catholic Lithuania was a significantly different case from its northern neighbours and embarked on authoritarianism already in 1926. Corporatism in the Baltic states is a topic that has only been mentioned in passing and has not been researched in its own right. The origins of corporatist institutions in Estonia are intimately linked with the person of Konstantin Pats. Pats was the leading figure in the Salvation Committee of Estonian Assembly, which declared Estonia's independence on 24 February 1918 as the Russian Bolsheviks retreated and before the German army arrived. The reputation of parliamentarism and the political parties suffered, as the existing political system seemed unable to deal with the economic depression, which hit Estonia in full force in 1931.
