Rein trained as a physicist (PhD), and has made major contributions to political science.

He won the Johan Skytte Prize in 2008 — the field’s most prestigious award — and the Karl Deutsch Award from the International Political Science Association in 2016.

Beyond academia, Taagepera received 23% of the vote in Estonia’s 1992 presidential election and served as founding dean of the University of Tartu’s Western-style School of Social Sciences.

In 2003, he was also the founding chair of a new political party, which later secured the prime minister’s post.

More People, Fewer States: The Past and Future of World Population and Empire Sizes
Cambridge University Press 2024, with Miroslav Nemčok

Predicting Party Size
Oxford University Press 2007

Making Social Sciences More Scientific
Oxford University Press 2008

Votes from Seats
Cambridge University Press 2017, with Matthew Shugart