Alenka Krašovec

The Slovenian EU Accession Referendum: A Cat-and-Mouse Game

This account reviews the background to, the campaign and the result of the Slovenian EU accession referendum. The authors ascertain that the ‘yes’ campaign was outstandingly well organised and synchronised, in stark contrast to the ‘no’ campaign, which was poorly organised and came across as representative of a narrow set of interests. Irrespective of this contrast, the large victory (almost 90 per cent) of the ‘yes’ camp was unexpected (as well as the relatively low turnout of 60.4 per cent). The two most important reasons for such a high level of support for the EU in the accession referendum can be traced back to the broad consensus among the political and social elite and the reorientation of the most well-known anti-EU actors to the NATO accession referendum which was held simultaneously. For this reason, account is taken of the Slovenian NATO accession referendum, but only to the extent that it influenced the campaign and result of the EU referendum.

The European Union and Party Politics in Slovenia: An Apparent or Real Impact?

This account deals with the characteristics of and developments in the party system of Slovenia, applying to them Ladrech’s (2002) perspectives on the possible impacts of Europeanization processes on national party politics. It directs attention to the accession referendum in 2003 and three national elections — two national parliamentary elections (2000 and 2004) and the first elections to the European Parliament in 2004. In the Slovenian case there are some reasons to believe that the EU has had some impact on the nature of party politics, especially at the end of the 1990s when certain (more or less symbolic) questions arose in the process of negotiating for full EU membership. There is also evidence that the EU is gradually and increasingly exerting an influence on domestic policy issues and national actors.

Recent Developments in Democracy in Slovenia

The article offers insight into the development of democracy in Slovenia, which is consistently placed among the countries that made the most progress toward consolidated democracy. Recently, however, Slovenian democracy has been challenged. The article shows that the balance between responsible and responsive policies tipped following the first decade, due to the demise of corporatism, distrust in political parties, and the personalization of politics.

The Presidentialisation of Parties in Slovenia: Leaders and Parties

Different authors have recently revealed several trends towards the personalisation and presidentialisation of politics in many Western liberal democracies, but also in post-socialist democracies. In the chapter, we analyse (trends of) presidentialisation in five parties that won elections in Slovenia, a country mostly described as having a premier-presidential form of constitutional system, but also where parties have exhibited different genetic features. An in-depth analysis shows that, given the stability of the semi-presidential constitutional system, the PR electoral system and the continuous fragmentation of the party system and in a context where coalition governments are the norm, to some extent the genetic features of parties can be seen as an explanatory variable of party presidentialisation.

The Enduring Low Levels of Europeanization of Slovenian Political Parties: Evidence from Election Manifestos

The Europeanization of national political parties is one of the most important topic areas in the Europeanization literature. Slovenian parties have slowly started to act in the arena of the European Union (EU) since the 1990s, and questions regarding the degree of their Europeanization have become increasingly relevant. In light of Ladrech’s conviction that the clearest types of evidence of Europeanization may be found in programme changes, we focus our research on party manifestos. By conducting a computer-assisted content analysis of 65 manifestos between 1990 and 2014, we were able to examine the presence of EU-related topics and the frequency of reference to these topics, utilizing a quantitative measure of party Europeanization. We conclude that the presence of Europe in Slovenian parliamentary party manifestos is a consequence of an incremental process that intensified with the turn of the millennium and peaked with Slovenia’s accession to the EU. In addition, we observe that the interaction of variables has an important effect on the salience of Europe in manifestos, with the variables involved in a mutual feedback process, thus indicating that size, governmental status and EU party links matter. In the case of fringe parties, party family proved relevant as well.

Openness of Public Administration in Slovenia: A Desire or a Reality?

Throughout history public administration has faced various challenges. Today those challenges are visible in the need to connect public administration and successful democracy, which is evident in the emphasis of the idea of serving citizens and not (only) users. It is obvious that the answer can be found in the concept of the new public service. The authors focus on whether it is possible, in Slovenia, which is facing similar challenges as those of many other developed countries, to introduce the concept of the new public service formally or actually, especially the element of open public administration. The research has shown that in the last decade a lot has changed concerning this, but at the same time a lot has stayed the same. That is why the authors establish that the strength of the concept of the new public service lies within the formal aspect (the existence of the special document that demands the openness of public administration to users); on a lesser scale this actually exists. For this reason, open public administration in Slovenia is still an unfulfilled wish.