POLITICAL CHANGES IN SLOVENIA SINCE 1989

This research paper discusses the political transformation in Slovenia since the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia in 1991. Slovenia rapidly achieved independence and established a multiparty democracy. It was able to do so largely because of its economic strength and resources, its relative ethnic homogeneity and its distance from the major wars that have devastated the former Yugoslavia. Free and fair elections have been held. Its politics since the Cold War have been dominated by a left-of-center coalition of social democratic parties, but, recently, its coalition government has included center-right and rightist parties, following the resurgence of rightist sentiment in the mid-1990s. Although Slovenia has had perhaps the most stable government in post-Cold War Eastern Europe, its progress toward an enduring democracy has been marred by corruption, crime and the rise of demagoguery on the right and of xenophobic nationalism and ethnic chauvinism toward minorities, especially refugees from the Serbo-Bosnian War.

The Republic of Slovenia is a small country located in the mountainous extreme northeastern corner of the former Yugoslavia. It borders on Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Italy. It has a population of about two million, 87 percent of which in 1995 were Slovenians (South Slavs). Minorities include Croats (2.8 percent), Serbs (2.4 percent) and small pockets of A

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between Kucan and Janez Jansa, the leader of the SDPS and Minister of Defence, over Jansa's high-handed treatment of former communists and others, his allegedly illegal wiretappings of colleagues and suspected subversives and his involvement in the illegal sale of arms to Bosnian Muslims, which led to Jansa's dismissal in 1994. In the spring of 1994, a new coalition was formed by Drnovsek, led by an expanded LDP, which was renamed the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (LDS) and included the liberal Democratic Party and the Greens. Included in the new coalition was the SCD and a grouping of social democrats called the United List of Social Democrats (ULSD). In January 1996, the SCD withdrew from the coalition because of a quarrel over key economic appointments and the slow pace of Slovenia's transition to a market economy. In commenting on the left-center-right composition of the National Assembly prior to the national elections which were held in November 1996, Ramet says that, between 1990 and 1992, the parties of the left won 37.1 percent of the vote and the parties of the right 32.7 percent; in 1992-1993, the left parties garnered 39.8 percent of the vote and the right 26.5 percent (116). However, in local elections in 1994 and
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Some common words found in the essay are:
National Assembly, Cold War, Defence Jansa, DESUS Podobnik, Josef Tito's, Independence Politics, Conclusion Slovenia, Yugoslavia Slovenia, Reform PDR, SPP SDPS, former yugoslavia, social democratic, democratic party, national assembly, 1996 ramet, christian democrats, elections held, percent 1992, former communist, coalition government, relative ethnic homogeneity, social democratic party, prime minister forming, november 1996 ramet, east european nations,
Approximate Word count = 2050
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)