Questa voce o sezione sull'argomento politologi non cita le fonti necessarie o quelle presenti sono insufficienti.
Si interessa di modelli quantitativo predittivi in ambito elettorale e partitico.
Conseguì nel 1965 il PH.D. in fisica presso la University of Delaware e nel 1969 presso la stessa università il M.A. in relazioni internazionali.
Dal 1986 al 1988 presidente della Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies.
Attualmente è professore ordinario all'Università di Tartu.
Size and Duration of Empires: Systematics of Size, 1978 ISSN0049-089X (WC·ACNP)
Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 3000 to 600 B.C., 1978 ISSN0049-089X (WC·ACNP)
Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D., 1979 JSTOR1170959
"Effective" Number of Parties: a Measure with Application to West Europe, 1979, in Comparative Political Studies, coautore Markku Laakso
The Baltic States: Years of Dependence, 1940-1990. Hurst and University of California Press, 1983, coautore R. Misiunas
Seats and Votes: The Effects and Determinants of Electoral Systems. Yale University Press, 1989, coautore M. S. Shugart
Estonia: Return to independence, 1993
The Baltic States: Years of Dependence, 1940-1990, 2nd edn. 1993, co-author ISBN0-520-08228-1
Predicting the number of parties. American Political Science Review, 1993, coautore M. S. Shugart
Expansion and contraction patterns of large polities: Context for Russia. International Studies Quarterly, 1997 JSTOR2600793
The Finno-Ugric Republics and the Russian State. Hurst and Routledge, 1999
Party size baselines imposed by institutional constraints: Theory for simple electoral systems. Journal of Theoretical Politics, 2001.
National representation in international organizations: The seat allocation model implicit in the EU Council and Parliament. Political Studies, 2006, coautrice Madelaine Hosli
Seat share distribution of parties: Models and empirical patterns. Electoral Studies, 2006, coautore Mirjam Allik
"Meteoric trajectory: The Res Publica Party in Estonia" (2006), Democratization 13(1): 78-94. the original conference paper as pdf file This essay gives a moderately candid account of Taagepera's Res Publica chairmanship and his evaluation of the party and its rise and fall.
Predicting Party Sizes: The Logic of Simple Electoral Systems, 2007 ISBN0-19-928774-0
Making Social Sciences More Scientific. The Need for Predictive Models, 2008 ISBN0-19-953466-7
Parsimonious model for predicting mean cabinet duration on the basis of electoral system (with Allan Sikk), Party Politics, 2010.