Over the past decade, the Estonian state has had to contend with major crises. We have, so to speak, more or less managed so far. What stands out, however, is that in order to cope with crises the state has increasingly begun to create platforms, units and experimental structures that operate ostensibly in the name of the state, but not quite as the state.
The common denominator of such organizations is the QUANGO – a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization. This refers to a phenomenon where the state has delegated certain functions to organizations that are still supposed to perform public tasks and remain linked to the public sector, meaning that they are predominantly funded by the state or through the state.
The United Kingdom, as a classic QUANGO state, has at the same time been a flagship for cutting them back. As early as 2010–2015, the Conservative government led by David Cameron launched the so-called “bonfire of the quangos” program. An audit was carried out of 900 state‑funded organizations, after which dozens of bodies were merged, closed, or brought back under the authority of ministries. This process continues to this day. For example, one of the first instructions issued by the current British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, to his ministers was to review all the QUANGOs in their respective areas of responsibility, with the aim of forcing them to close, merge, or transfer their functions to ministries, ie to central government. Shortly afterwards, Starmer announced that NHS England would be abolished, as it was a duplicative unit within the broader “health fund” structure in England. Immediately after announcing the closure of NHS England, the prime minister said he could not “honestly explain to the British people why they should spend their money on two levels of bureaucracy”.
