20.500.12556/ReVIS-11808 Constitutional backsliding in Slovenia? Executive Summary • Despite many achievements since independence across social, political, economic and constitutional domains, which are unobjectionable, equally many constitutional and political objectives still need to be met. • Slovenia is unique with its specific model of state-owned capitalism, monopolized by the postcommunist left, that has resulted in the absence of economic pluralism, which consequently stands in the way of all other forms of social pluralism, including the existence of a vibrant pluralist civil society and professional pluralist media. • The relatively small size of the country and the increasing weakness of the state’s formal institutional infrastructure (especially regarding the judiciary) and the growing passivity of the electorate, have enabled strong factional groups to create a parallel infrastructure of decisionmaking, which uses the formal institutions of the state as an instrument for their on-going economic self-enrichment and further entrenchment of their de facto political power. • The dynamics of politics in Slovenia is thus opposite to that in the currently backsliding CEE countries. Rather than seeking a profound change in the society, the political agenda of the contemporary ‘Slovenian new class’ (i.e. the informal power structure undergirding the postcommunist left) is the preservation of the status quo by all means. Whenever this status quo is at least potentially challenged, bitter political and social conflicts, as at present, erupt. • Under the radar of international attention, the specific Slovenian transition has resulted in an institutionally undernourished rule of law system and democratic governance, marked by an implosion of the political space, incessant populism and growing political radicalization in favour of illiberal democracy. The latter has traditionally existed on the (far-)left, but more recently its support started to build also on the former centre-right, which began to voice public support for the actually backsliding CEE countries. • The course of the development of the Slovenian constitutional democracy three decades after the country’s declaration of independence therefore remains uncertain as never before. Slovenia independence constitutional objectives true false false Southeast Europe in Focus Angleški jezik Ni določen file:///C:/Users/knjiznica1/Downloads/seefocus_2021_2_slovenia-1.pdf Članek v reviji 2025-06-18 11:53:18 2025-06-18 11:53:18 2025-06-19 03:07:58 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2021 0 0 Nasl. z nasl. zaslona; Opis vira z dne 8. 7. 2021; str. 33-39 No. 2 2021 0000-00-00 NiDoloceno NiDoloceno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 2021-01-01 34 Y509-9536 69722627 seefocus_2021_2_slovenia-1.pdf seefocus_2021_2_slovenia-1.pdf 1 E86EE9EF584199378FE33A2B9B83C1A0 c3f79d4533bb7f78b1f297778c7236cb60a4372ed9c95e03bc2e35d69bae9494 90833873-4c1a-11f0-bf0a-001a4af901a5 https://revis.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=13645 Nova Univerza - Evropska pravna fakulteta 0 0 0