Slovenia has been widely portrayed as a ‘success story’ of the transition to modern liberal democracy. This paper attempts to revise that somewhat distorted image by explaining how different political visions, and their clashes and coalitions over two decades of independent statehood, influenced the Slovenian citizenship regime, which is rife with undemocratic practices. Drawing on the ‘nationalizing state’ approach, the paper illuminates two dominant political agendas: the nationalizing state agenda and the Europeanizing state agenda. However, both agendas are frequently intertwined and provide legitimacy to political actors across the ideological spectrum depending on the circumstances. These circumstances are external or internal to the political system and determine the relevance of either of the two agendas. As such, they also play an important role in shaping the outcome of the political bargaining that has left its mark on the Slovenian citizenship regime. The periods of consensus between political elites regarding the overarching goals of national independence and accession to the European Union were accompanied by external pressures to introduce liberal democratic principles. Consequently, these facilitated the civic agenda. On the other hand, the absence of international pressures, in combination with internal factors, allowed serious malpractice in the field. Nevertheless, citizenship has proved to be an extremely important aspect of both agendas.
COBISS.SI-ID: 31426397
This article aims to identify the potential of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) to promote the participation of civil society in the policy-making process in the fields of employment and education in Slovenia. Our analysis reveals that both EU factors as well as national factors determine the role of the civil society in the OMC processes. At the EU level, neither of the two policy fields requires a (large-scale) harmonisation of national legislation with the European framework and they both place competence at the national level. Thus, national actors play the OMC game only "as much as it is required". This leads to a very weak political will for making (extensive) policy changes at the national level. In relation to domestic factors, the existing structure or policy style is only marginally relevant to the participation of the civil society in the OMC processes. It seems that the (in)capability of civil society is closely linked to the extent/ limits of their knowledge about the OMC's potential and opportunities. In the field of educational policy, the participation of civil society is further limited by lack of the financial resources.
COBISS.SI-ID: 31818845
The development of South East Europe (SEE) is very closely tied to the interests of the European Union (EU) in the region and to the efforts of individual SEE countries to integrate into the EU. Danica Fink-Hafner and Damjan Lajh in 'Europeanization in South East Europe' review the domestic impact of the EU's policy towards the region, also taking its geopolitical interests in SEE into account. The chapter also covers trends in the attitude of the EU towards the region's countries and changing conditions for their acceptance, membership negotiations and subsequent full membership.
COBISS.SI-ID: 31063645
Variations in relationships between interest groups and seven post-communist parliaments (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine) are found to be determined by the constitutional system, the strenght of civil society and institutionalisation of the social partnership, as well as by international organisations. Membership in the European Union has strengthened the national executive in relation to both interest groups and the parliament.
COBISS.SI-ID: 31132253
The book serves as an extension of the work Paul Phillips and Bogomil Ferfila started with their monograph entitled The Rise and Fall of the Third Way: Yugoslavia 1945-1991 and continued with their work on the political economic transformation of Slovenia. The initial research discussed the contradictions behind the economic and political collapse of Yugoslavia. In further discussions, Slovenia became a case study for the much debated topic on the preferred process of transformation. Their extended work suggested three important themes. First, the process was and is evolutionary. Second, the process was also 'responsive'. And third, the key to the story was in large part the process itself, not just the makeup of the new economic and political institutions. Given this thougths, we saw the logic of a third book that focuses on how the processes of change affected the development and stability of democratic politics in Slovenia. The passing of two decades allows us to answer some questions that could not be addressed at the time of the reforms.
COBISS.SI-ID: 31512925