Smooth and Non-Violent Democratization: The Case of Slovenia

After 1989, along with the collapse of Soviet Union, Central and Eastern European countries the democracy became synonymous with ‘return to Europe’. The post-communist regime was a reaction against its predecessor and that reaction had produced a demand for democratization. Therefore, the process of democratization, which gained momentum at the end of eighties and, the beginning of the nineties, has become an important phenomenon. The most extreme case of transition, certainly, is former Yugoslavia. Due to the war and the collapse of the Federation into several successor states, the legitimacy and viability are still being questioned. The Balkan region, known as the ‘Powder Keg of Europe’ has been commonly considered to be representing a chronic political instability and a lack of socio-economic modernization as well as much poorer prospects for democratization and for acceptance into the European Union (EU) in comparison to the other countries of East and Central Europe. Slovenia however may be seen as the exception that proved the Balkan rule. Besides, the successor states of Yugoslavia, Slovenia has recorded the smoothest, non-violent and the least problematic transition toward liberal democracy. Slovenia maintained the highest level of system stability in the powder keg of Europe. Slovenia is the only Yugoslav successor state, which has peacefully established a functioning democracy. It has established a stable democracy and moved easily to a market economy. It is also the only the EU member country from the former. More importantly, Slovenia has kept the highest level of system stability in Powder Keg of Europe’. The main purpose of this thesis is to review and discuss the political democratization process in Slovenia. This study also reviews the reasons, which make the Slovenian transition to democracy special among the post-communist democracies. More specifically, this study particularly focuses on certain political aspects to discover its way of democratization. Slovenia, one of the most successful countries within Central and Eastern Europe is also the only component republic of ex-Yugoslavia not to confront continuing problems of ethnic challenge, deep political conflict and economic debility. All theories attempt to impose order and find patterns in the messy and complex reality of human life. Therefore, the theories are useful in that they ask important questions about democratization in general and contribute to particular explanations. Concerning the democratization process in Slovenia, ‘Theories of Democratization’ is generally going to be reviewed. Democratization theories aim to explain how authoritarian regimes change into liberal democratic ones. More specifically, Transition Theories will be applied during the study. Transition studies have been chosen, because they offer a ‘political’ explanation of democratization and also differentiate democratic transition and democratic consolidation phases properly, and point out the necessary conditions for the success of each phase