Slovenian Political Research Articles

The hour of European truth for Slovenian intellectuals

In this paper, the author presents and analyses the political activity of Slovenian opposition intellectuals during the period of Slovenia's EU accession (1995-97). In the summer of 1997, a group of intellectuals from the Nova revija circle published a public letter "An Hour of European Truth for Slovenia", in which they criticised the social and political situation and the government's poor policy of EU and NATO approximation. The signatories of the public letter perceived the then rule of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDS), which was the successor of the official youth organisation under socialism, as undemocratic rule by former communists who held all the strings of power. In approaching the EU, they opposed the agreement with Italy on the purchase of Slovenian real estate (the so-called Spanish Compromise). Although they were in principle in favour of EU membership, they also collaborated in their activism with a group of outspoken Eurosceptics. In the first part of the paper, the author presents Slovenian politics in the 1990s, while in the second part he briefly describes the process of Slovenia's accession to the EU and NATO. In the third part, the author describes the background and activities of the group of intellectuals in question. The fourth part analyses the public letter and the public reactions. In the conclusion, the author poses a question whether the actors mentioned were Eurosceptics. In his opinion, the concept of Euroscepticism does not help to understand the complex and ambivalent attitudes of political actors towards Europe and the EU. In conclusion, the author highlights the trajectory of Slovenian anticommunist political thought up to the present day.

European Politics Behind Closed Doors: The Origins of Euroscepticism in Slovenia

Euroscepticism is a common political problem in many EU member states or potential candidates. There is a general belief that the EU is a giant bureaucratic structure and as such distant, colossal and suspicious, which creates a growing distance between the EU and its citizens. Such ambivalent sentiment towards the EU could be noticed also in Slovenia after it gained independence from Yugoslavia and started the process of joining the EU. The general public opinion about the EU was rather low – people were generally sympathetic about the EU but never completely enthusiastic about it. What attributed to such attitude was also the fact that politicians adopted several regulations without properly informing the public therefore leaving people uninformed about potentially important issues. In this paper, we argue that the threat to representative democracy is not so much in politicians not keeping their promises but rather in politicians not telling their constituents what they are working on and adopting more regulations than communicated with public. Our analysis of election manifestos, public opinion and press releases uncovers two fundamental problems of the Slovenian government between 2000 and 2004. The first one is an almost routine adoption of EU regulations without serious public debates and the second government’s failure to communicate relevant matters with public in a timely manner, problematize them and bring them closer to people. Although the analysis focuses on events that happen around 20 years ago, we believe that our findings are highly relevant also for the state of Slovenian politics today.

Philosophy, hidden in slogans: The case of relaxedness of Slovenian educational system

Slogans in education are designed to promote educational goals. One of the finest remarkable examples in Slovenian history demonstrates that political slogans can sometimes cover a whole range of social areas and operate as a central ideologeme, through which a very specific political and educational ambition was promoted in an otherwise inarticulate way. The concept of relaxedness (in Slovenian sproščenost), taken from the philosophy of Martin Heidegger and his notion of Die Gelassenheit (releasement), after the victory of the right-wing SDS (Slovenian Democratic Party) party in 2004 is perhaps one of the best illustrations in Slovenian politics of how an ideology, in this case a philosophically inspired one, operated already through the slogan and, above all, through its semantically ambiguous and undefined content. The sproščenost of the Slovenian school, as it was named, became a motto for political change within the educational system as well, where the very essence of it manifested through complete vagueness or, in other words, openness to meaning. In line with the uncommon slogan ‘Za sproščeno Slovenijo’ (‘For a relaxed Slovenia’) the SDS, as the leading opposition party in Slovenian history, not only won the elections for the first time, but also tried to completely transform the social and political space in the country. The Slovenian example shows how a unique political slogan can occupy the whole social field, including education, with its effects, thus creating a specific political and at the same time educational moment in its social action.

Slovenia: a case of a small, relatively new member country

The concept of differentiated integration (DI) is practically invisible in Slovenian politics. The analysis showed that the key words associated with DI are seldom used in parliamentary debates, coalition programmes or prime ministerial speeches. This suggests that the issue of DI is more a topic of academic discussion than of daily politics. While the low salience of DI in Slovenian political debates makes it hard to establish governmental positions in detail, the common thread throughout Slovenian foreign policy from independence in 1991 onwards has been that a strong and united EU is of key importance for Slovenia. The few instances where wording related to DI models was used reflect a concern about a multi-speed Europe, especially a fear that a multi-tier EU would mean fewer opportunities for future Slovenian governments and in general, fewer opportunities for smaller and/or less developed countries.

The Politics of Differentiated Integration: What do Governments Want? Country Report - Slovenia

The paper addresses a concept of differentiated integration in Slovenian politics. The analysis showed that the key words associated with the salience of DI are seldom used in parliamentary debates, coalition programmes or prime minister speeches. The issue of DI is more a topic for academic discussion than for daily politics. We identify that the common thread throughout Slovenian foreign policy from independence onwards has been that a strong and united EU, which is of key importance for Slovenia. Primarily because of a fear that a multi-tier EU would mean fewer opportunities for future Slovenian governments and in general fewer opportunities for smaller and/or less developed countries.

The Austro-Hungarian Agreement of 1867 and the Specifics of Slovenian Politics

The specific attitude of Slovenian politicians to the introduction of Austro-Hungarian Dualism in 1867 was determined by their understanding of the ways in which the Austrian Monarchy could be transformed, as well as the main provisions of their national-political programme, which had been formulated during the Revolution of 1848–1849. In the mid-1860s, when political life in the empire revived, they sought to adapt their demands to the idea of an Austrian federation that had been put forward by Czech national figures, and they developed programs for the unification of the Slovenian lands based on not natural, but historical law, without redrawing the borders of the provinces. These were the programs of Inner Austria and the Kingdom of Illyria, which did not meet with the support of Slavic politicians. In 1866, shortly before signing of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, many Slovenian liberals returned to the demand for a United Slovenia. The introduction of dualism in the empire caused strong dissatisfaction among Slovenian politicians who sought to form an Austrian federation; their protest was expressed in the national press, in speeches by Slovenian deputies in the Reichsrat, and in the Tabor movement. New realities in the empire, as well as Bismarck's victories in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, pushed Slovenian and Croatian politicians to actively discuss various options for creating a political South-Slavic union. For example, at a meeting in Sisak even the idea of abandoning the Slovenian lands in Cisleithania and concluding a real union between Hungary and an autonomous Slovenia and Croatia was discussed. The rejection of Dualism as a form of political organisation of the empire and the desire to replace it with one or another version of the federation were characteristic of the ideology of most Slovenian politicians until the First World War.

Identity Through the Looking Glass: How the Perception of Identity in Roman Funerary Archaeology Developed in Slovenia

This paper addresses how the changes in Slovenian politics have been influencing the interpretation of identity in the sphere of Roman mortuary archaeology. The paper starts with an overview of the political history of Slovenia, separated into three phases: the period until 1945, the Yugoslav period (1945–1990), and independent Slovenia (1991–present). The second part of the paper focusses on theoretical studies directly discussing identity of the deceased in Roman period Slovenia. The majority of such studies is centred on the material from larger cemeteries, notably those of Colonia Ulpia Traiana Poetovio (modern Ptuj) and Colonia Iulia Emona (modern Ljubljana), of which the latter is better documented and researched. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential for future studies.

Ivan Dečko v deželnem zboru v svojem prvem mandatu (1890–96)

Avtor v prispevku analizira deželnozborske nastope spodnještajerskega poslanca Ivana Dečka v njegovem prvem mandatu (1890-96). Leta 1885 se je Dečko iz Maribora preselil v Celje, se zaposlil v Sernečevi odvetniški pisarni in vidno pospešil slovenski »prodor« v mestu ob Savinji. S premišljeno taktiko je nastopil tudi na deželnozborski ravni, ko je leta 1890 postal poslanec štajerskega deželnega zbora v ljutomerski kmečki kuriji. S svojimi deželnozborskimi govori, peticijami in interpelacijami je (skupaj z ostalimi slovenskimi poslanci) povzročal nemir v nemških (liberalnih) vrstah in jih prisilil k nacionalni homogenizaciji. Premetena slovenska politika je tudi pod njegovim vplivom na začetku 90. let popolnoma osvojila podeželje, spodnještajersko nemštvo pa omejila na mesta in nekatere trge.

Račun brez Korošca? Dileme očeta Jugoslavije ob ustanovitvi Banovine Hrvaške

Category: 1.01 Original scientific paper Language: Original in Slovenian (Abstract in Slovenian and English, Summary in English) Key words: Anton Korošec, Vladko Maček, Pavle Karađorđević, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Banovina Croatia Abstract: On the basis of archival and memoir sources, the author describes the views of Anton Korošec's leading Slovenian policy on state issues in the time of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Korošec's views on the establishment of the Banovina of Croatia in 1939 and, consequently, the dilemmas surrounding the further decentralization of the Yugoslav state, including the possibilities for establishing a similar Slovenian state entity, are evaluated in this context. The author notes that the Banovina of Slovenia remained an unfulfilled demand for Slovenian politics. The combination of military events, foreign political turbulence, and nationalistic frictions in internal politics precluded the further reorganization of the country.

"Psi s cvetlicami": slovenski vojaki in vojna s slovanskimi nasprotniki v slovenskem političnem časopisju 1914–1916

»DOGS WITH FLOWERS«: SLOVENIAN SOLDIERS AND WAR WITH SLAVIC OPPONENTS IN SLOVENIAN POLITICAL NEWSPAPERS 1914–1916For a vast majority of Slovenians and Slovenian soldiers there was no doubt that the Slavic opponents of the Monarchy were, due to their undisputed Austrian patriotism, nothing but enemies to the Monarchy. In the period from 1914 to 1916, such sentiments were encouraged by two Slovenian political daily newspapers, i.e. Slovenec and Slovenski narod, whose attitude allowed no ideas about interaction between Slovenians and the other Slavic nations. Regarding the issue of Slavic identity, they found the front lines which ran between Austria-Hungary and Germany on the one side and Slavic countries fighting them on the other to be the deciding factor. Despite some articles in which no harsh words were shared concerning Slavic opponents, the path to considering the mutual Slavic identity was decisively closed at both newspapers. There were only the Austrian sense of self-worth and its narrow attitude towards the Slavic identity and culture. Both Slovenec and Slovenski narod significantly consolidated the position that Slovenians – just like other Slavs in the Habsburg Monarchy – were Austrians, and those who did not feel the same came from a different planet. This attitude was the result of the war, which made Slavic affiliation inferior to the interests of countries fighting in it.

Russian Refugees and Posthumous Evaluation of Lenin in Slovenian Politics

Throughout the Slovenian political arena, Lenin was seen as an extraordinary world-historical figure. This was emphasised most frequently on the occasion of his death (21 January 1924), which prompted the most comprehensive Slovenian statements about the leader of the Russian Bolshevik revolution. Lenin’s revolutionary work was analysed by all three Slovenian political camps: Catholic, Liberal, and Marxist. The revolutionary part of the Marxist camp welcomed it, while its non-revolutionary part perceived Lenin as an embodiment of schism and hatred, a man of great deeds and terrifying destruction, standing outside all accepted moral laws. The opinion of the Liberals was similar: for them, Lenin represented a world born from revolution, fatally threatening the existing balance of social and political power. The Catholic camp, on the other hand, harboured for him a peculiar admiration. To be sure, he was seen as a dictator, a demonic genius ethically inclining towards a social justice which was based on the denial of individualism and on a ruthless, atheist, ‘Genghis Khan-like’, bloody Marxist revolution. However, he was also perceived as a man of action and energy, unmatched by either Peter the Great or Napoleon, and counted among the greatest Slavic personages. This was taking place at a time when the Slovenian political Catholicism still credited communism with an ability to provide certain social and economic solutions for other social movements as well.
 The Slovenian politics of the mid-1920s emphasised both the extraordinary nature of the Lenin phenomenon and his radical revolutionary acts, which sprang from a monumental political ability and relentless pursuit of the envisioned goal. This emphasis was accompanied by an understanding of the historical forces underlying the past events. The developments in Russia were accepted as facts, and this was what the Russian refugees had to come to terms with as they looked for a new home on the western edge of the Slavic world.

Dismantling the Geotemporality of Europeanization: The First European Festival of Lesbian and Gay Film was Yugoslav

This paper draws upon my fieldwork at the Festival of Gay and Lesbian Film in Ljubljana to examine how “Europeanness” is used to ground the legitimacy of minoritarian organizations, but also to question the assumptions implicit in such claims to belonging. I argue that the discourse of Europeanness is used in similarly ambivalent ways in both Slovenian lgbt activism and official Slovenian politics: for political and institutional legitimization that also performs a distancing from the post-Yugoslav region. This discursive distancing serves to hide the constant processes of negotiation of belonging within the eu as well as ongoing practical cooperation and communication within the post-Yugoslav region. Attention to such strategic tensions opens up a possibility of formulating a critique of the discourse that posits Europeanization as the only possible future for the region and Europe as an imagined space of tolerance for minorities.

The Analysis of Slovenian Political Party Programs Regarding Doctors and Health Workers from 1992 to 2014

IntroductionThe study focuses on the programmatic bases of Slovenian political parties since independence. It presents an analysis of party programs and their preferences regarding doctors and other health workers, as well as the contents most commonly related to them. At the same time, the study also highlights the intensity of the presence of doctors on the policy agenda through time.MethodsIn the study, 83 program documents of political parties have been analysed. The study includes programmes of political parties that have occurred in parliamentary elections in Slovenia between 1992 and 2014 and have exceeded the parliamentary threshold. The data were analysed using the content analysis method, which is suitable for analysing policy texts. The analysis was performed using ATLAS.ti, the premier software tool for qualitative data analysis.ResultsThe results showed that doctors and other health workers are an important political topic in non-crisis periods. At that time, the parties in the context of doctors mostly dealt with efficiency and the quality of services in the health system. They often criticize doctors and expose the need for their control. In times of economic crisis, doctors and other health workers are less important in normative commitments of parties.ConclusionsSlovenian political parties and their platforms cannot be distinguished ideologically, but primarily on the principle of access to government. It seems reasonable to conclude that parties do not engage in dialogue with doctors, and perceive the latter aspassive recipients of government decisions—politics.

The Strength of Pro-European Consensus Among Slovenian Political Elites

The Strength of Pro-European Consensus Among Slovenian Political Elites

Slovenia from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy until nowadays: A brief historical overview

AbstractThe paper analyses the current Slovenian political and economic situation through interpretations of old socialist regime’s modernisation. Right after the Yugoslavian disintegration, namely in the beginning of transition, the Slovenian starting position was the best, compared to other Yugoslavian countries and among other transitional countries. Between 1990/1991 and 2008 Slovenia seemed to be a politically more or less stable and economically well performing country. But after 2008 a negative trend hit the whole society, causing political instabilities and economic stagnation, reflected in negative macroeconomic indicators (i.e. GDP, GDP p.c. FDIs, unemployment, government debt, etc.). Could such a situation be explained on the basis of a long lasting socialist regime? If these suppositions are to be confirming, why do other transitional countries, which were subjected to a tougher communist regime, seem to be performing better nowadays?

Russia as Seen by Slovenian Politics from the Sarajevo Assassination to the Outbreak of the World War in 1914

After the Sarajevo assassination of June 28th, 1914, Slovenian politicians carefully observed the actions of the European superpowers. The contemporary international role and significance of the Russian Empire were considered by the Catholic and Liberal camps but ignored by the Marxist camp. Slovenian politics saw Russia as a dangerous country, hostile to Austria-Hungary, and as a threat to European peace. The most negative attitude to Russia, based on Austrian patriotism, was adopted by the Catholic camp, which supported its anti-Russian stance with ideological and religious reasons. When Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia on August 6th, 1914, Slovenians were convinced of Austrian victory. In the course of the war, however, the Slovenian outlook on Russia changed: as the anti-Austrian disposition grew, Russia began to be seen in a more favourable light by the Catholic and Liberal camps alike.

»Za nov družbeni red«: genealogija samoupravljanja

V prispevku sem predstavila zgodovinski razvoj koncepta samoupravljanja iz političnoekonomske teorije, kot so ga utemeljili utopični socialisti in anarhisti, na primer Pierre Joseph Proudhon (Kaj je lastnina?, 1890), v našem prostoru pa krščanski socialist Andrej Gosar leta 1935 v knjigi Za nov družbeni red. Edvard Kardelj (Smeri razvoja političnega sistema socialističnega samoupravljanja, 1979) je bil nato tvorec zakonodaje, ki je uvedla samoupravljanje v SFRJ v začetku 50. let 20. stoletja. Analizirala sem specifične okoliščine, ki so botrovale odločitvi za uvedbo samoupravljanja v SFRJ, ter razloge za njegov neuspeh oziroma prekinitev implementacije z razpadom Jugoslavije v začetku 90. let. Ocenila sem vpliv jugoslovanskega modela samoupravljanja na druge politične skupnosti v svetu do danes in kaj od tega koncepta je v sodobnosti ostalo oziroma oživelo v Sloveniji.V prispevku sem poskusila odgovoriti na naslednja vprašanja: Zakaj delavsko samoupravljanje v socialistični Sloveniji oziroma Jugoslaviji ni uspelo? Kako je mogoče koncept samoupravljanja misliti in reaktualizirati v sodobnem slovenskem politično-ekonomskem kontekstu? Ali avtonomizem, ki je ena izmed teoretskih podlag samoupravljanja, lahko konstituira učinkovito alternativo oziroma grožnjo neoliberalnemu globalnemu kapitalizmu?

Fashion, Media and the Elite: Ethnography of the Exploitation of the Slovenian Transitional Media Promenade

The article is an attempt to represent a particular social practice, which has, due to its currency and ubiquity in the media as of late, gained a surprisingly naturalized legitimacy within the Slovenian mediascape. After Slovenia gained its independence in 1991, two parallel processes could be observed. On the one hand, the state itself was searching for a new identity which it could project both inward and outward, it was looking for a way to communicate the national tale of itself through numerous ruling discourses of politics, economy, tourism, sports and culture. On the other hand, the transitional ruling class and the emergent social force of postsocialist rich, chosen and owners needed new elements in the process of social differentiation. Fashion became one of the reinvented refuges or simply “discoveries” of the new Slovenian political, economic and media elite, which used the media to establish a visual order of transitional social differentiation. At the core of fashion as a mode of social distinction is a ceremonialized and spectacularized display of cultural differences within a society. Elites have been caught in the social obligation of constant invention of novelty, in order to create the necessary social difference from the non-elite or the masses. Namely, difference itself has no wider social value if there is no one to notice or desire it. This article methodologically authenticates the conclusions through the analysis of specific media perceptions and an ethnography conducted among actors on these levels: producers of fashion as social distinction (the elite) vs reproducers of fashion as social distinction (the media) vs consumers of fashion as social distinction (the audience).

Coalitions and Corporatism: The Slovenian Political Economy and the Crisis

Slovenia stands out as the only post-communist country to have established a corporatist system and centralized wage bargaining at the national level in the 1990s. This article analyses the emergence and sustainability of Slovenian corporatism as well as the ways in which it has shaped policymaking during the economic crisis. Drawing on recent advances in institutional analysis, this article develops a coalitional argument to account for the emergence of centralized wage bargaining in the 1990s and for decentralization in more recent years.

Between language maintenance and language shift: the Slovenian community in Italy today and tomorrow

The paper focuses on the processes of language maintenance and shift among the Slovenian community in north-eastern Italy, from both the present and future perspectives, and presents the results of two empirical studies. The first offers a quantitative analysis of the linguistic behaviour of the Slovenian community members, in order to provide information about the level of minority language maintenance or the gradual shift towards Italian. The intergenerational comparison brings into focus some divergences among two differentage groups and indicates the variables that cooperate to establish them.The second study explores the challenges that the Slovenian community must face in order to encourage the use of the minority language among non-Slovenian speakers. Relying on qualitative data obtained by a series of in-depth interviews with representatives of Slovenian political, cultural and economic organizations in Italy, the study aims to identify some possible strategies for the spread and promotion of the Slovenian language among the wider society.