The History of Political Science in Slovenia

Political science in Slovenia has started its development as part of legal studies.The first book that can be considered political science literature is “Ocrt povijesti političkih ideja” by Joža Goričar. As a jurist, Goričar has also written a work entitled “Opća sociologija” and is renowned as the founder of sociology in Slovenia. Early political scientists were jurists led by Adolf Bibič, who asserted political science as an independent discipline or academic field in Yugoslavia. Political science had a high degree of autonomy and was not considered (as was the case in Croatia) a set of other sciences: economy, law, philosophy, sociology, and history. Studies in international relations, defense and public administration developed within political science, as did those theory-oriented in the early 1990s. Much credit goes to Adolf Bibič because political science in Slovenia was at a high theoretical level and internationally present. It should be recognised, however, that its academic productivity was relatively low. The international presence of Slovenian political scientists improved during the mid-1990s, so that Slovenia has even got a member of its own at the IPSA Executive Board, Anton Beble