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10 - Liberal Democracy in Slovenia: From Seventh Heaven to the Lobby of Hell in Only Two Decades?
- from Part II - Country Studies
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- By Alenka Krasovec, University of Ljubljana, Sabrina P. Ramet, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
- Edited by Sabrina P. Ramet, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Christine M. Hassenstab, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Ola Listhaug, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
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- Book:
- Building Democracy in the Yugoslav Successor States
- Published online:
- 25 May 2017
- Print publication:
- 15 May 2017, pp 256-286
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Summary
For the last twenty-five years, some of the most prominent international organizations (Freedom House, Transparency International, the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), Amnesty International, and the Human Development Report) have repeatedly characterized Slovenia as a champion among Yugoslav successor states for its development of liberal democracy. Nevertheless, aspects in many areas of Slovene democratic and economic life have changed or worsened in the last several years, while signs of stagnation have also been recorded in other areas. It therefore appears to be an appropriate time to assess Slovenia's progress in developing a liberal democratic system, focusing in particular on characteristics of the party arena, the costs of transformation of its economic system, problems of corruption, and the young republic's record in establishing independent media and in protecting ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities.
Political Transformation
At the end of May 1988, at a time when Slovenia was still part of the Socialist Federated Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), the Military Council of the Ljubljana District of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) had three Slovenian journalists and one army sergeant arrested and put on trial. The charge brought against them was that they had published secret documents showing that the JNA had been preparing to arrest a number of liberals in Slovenia and put an end to efforts to democratize the republic. The army magnified the offense to Slovenian public opinion by conducting the trial in Serbo-Croatian, even though it was being held in Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital. The trial galvanized Slovenes, with crowds of 10,000 to 12,000 gathering in protest in downtown Ljubljana day after day for the duration of the trial. In this context, an extralegal Committee for the Protection of Human Rights emerged; the Slovenian communist authorities made contact with this committee and declared their full agreement with the views and aims of the committee. On 27 July 1988, the four accused – among whom was the future defense minister and eventual prime minister, Janez Janša – were found guilty and sentenced to prison terms ranging from five months to four years. An opinion poll conducted at the time revealed that 63 per cent of Slovenes wanted to see their republic secede from the SFRY.
Slovenia: Almost without Any Innovations: Organizational Structures in Slovenian Parties
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- By Alenka Krašovec, University of Ljubljana
- Edited by Katarzyna Sobolewska-Myślik, Beata Kosowska-Gąstoł, Piotr Borowiec
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- Book:
- Organizational Structures of Political Parties in Central and Eastern European Countries
- Published by:
- Jagiellonian University Press
- Published online:
- 03 January 2018
- Print publication:
- 01 January 2017, pp 419-440
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Summary
Introduction
As has been exposed by many political scientists, all political parties must develop their organization, whether they want to thrive actively or simply survive in the long-term. The dual aim of this article is to present the organizational structures of Slovenian parties, and to reveal and explain any differences between them. Parties can be distinguished in terms of their age, size, model of development, and ideological position. All these characteristics will be used to analyze how Slovenian parties differ in their organizational structures.
This article is based on analysis of formal documents (party statutes). In this study, we restrict ourselves to an investigation only of current parliamentary parties in Slovenia. The article is organized into several sections, the first of which deals with the development and regulation of parties, followed by a presentation of the main characteristics of the Slovenian party system and its parties. The last two sections present characteristics of organizational structures in parties, as well as intra-party processes.
Development and Regulation of Parties
By the 1890s, party life in Slovenia was already well-developed, with three parties representing the main political orientations: conservative; liberal; and social democratic. This initial period of party development was followed by the development of parties except for the League of Communists were prohibited.
In 1991, Slovenia adopted a new Constitution. Although the Constitution, like in many other countries, acknowledges the existence of political parties (van Biezen and Borz 2012), these are mentioned only a few times, mainly in the form of a prohibition – for example, professionals in the Slovenian Army as well as police officers are not allowed to be members of political parties. Likewise, the function of a judge is incompatible with membership in party bodies (Lukšič 1994). On the other hand, as a rule, party laws to a greater extent regulate parties, including their operation and functioning (van Biezen and Piccio 2013).
In fact, a previous law dealing with political parties was adopted in Slovenia in December 1989. Although this was a short document with only 27 articles, it mentioned several of the more common areas of party regulation (Karvonen 2007).