Democratic Transition in Slovenia (Central European Political Science Review v.7 n.23-24.)

Professor Ramet and Danica Fink-Hafner set the agenda in the introductory first chapter: the authors are concerned with the cultural aspects of democratic transition in the specific case of Slovenia. However, through the eleven studies presented we do not only get an insight of Slovenian political culture, attitudes and value system, but the reader is confronted with many important dilemmas typical of the entire Eastern European region.

One of the most obvious drawbacks of the collection is that all the authors share a very similar set of values and therefore they fail to present us with lively debates that a transition certainly involves. Even if the volume was not meant to be a reader, the editors might have as well presented papers written by researches not committed to liberal views. We often hear of clericalism, intolerance and of the supporters of the People’s Party, but we don not hear their voice and thus the general impression is that the volume as a whole is bound to be strongly biased even if the individual papers meet high professional standards.

On the other hand, it must be said that there is a delicate balance between formal, quantitative analysis of data sets and more narrative style and this gives the sensation that we can read quickly and without pains. This achievement shall be appreciated especially since the authors come from scholarly traditions that have little in common. The results of research done by Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon and Slovene students of sociology and political science are arranged in a harmonious way.

It is very unfortunate that the second chapter, designed to give an overview of Slovenian political and institutional history since 1988, often blends into quasi chronicle-style and really tries to “tell the story as it was” by picking positive and negative figures. The two well trained and widely acknowledged editors could have been sensitive enough not to put such an essay at the head of such a volume as it has a strong tendency to instruct the reader instead of serving as an introduction.

Two Norwegian scholars wrote the third chapter that contains an impressive pool of data, however remains superficial in its analysis of value systems. Their statement according to which “Slovenia does not fall into the group of Catholic countries where religion ranks high in importance…This can likely be explained by the relatively strong impact of Protestant influences that have played a role in shaping religious values in Slovenia” (p.59.) is a mystery: does it mean that Protestants are less religious than (Roman) Catholics? I think it is a paradox reasoning that may be reconsidered.

On the contrary, Anna Jonsson wrote a very thoughtful chapter on the “Changing Concepts of Rights in Post-Communist Societies”. She makes a distinction between transformation and transition in the case of Post-Communist countries and she is the only one who consciously tries to avoid the trap that the idea of “Post-Communism” presents while she talks of the reasons why economic and social legislation was so important to Slovenes during 1990s. Her answer is simple: not so much for their ideological inheritance, but because they felt they were not as well off as their western counterparts. It appears several times in the volume that the authors had difficulties with distinguishing between official ideology and popular value systems that may or may not overlap in certain periods. Can Slovens and Eastern Europeans be described as people that are somehow less individualistic, more egalitarian with strong paternalistic tendencies only because they come from states whose official ideology was Marxism-Leninism or Socialism? Chapters 6-11 show that value transformation does not coincide with political transition. Egalitarianism reached its historic low in the 1980s, while state interference was stronger in the areas of culture and media in the 1990s than a decade earlier. It is equally important that, as chapter 6 written by Mitja Hafner-Fink demonstrates, traditional value systems can also form the bases for both egalitarianism and intolerance towards religious or sexual minorities. Therefore Slovenia – and perhaps the whole “Post-communist” region is caught not between socialism and liberalism, but between tradition and modernity.

Sandra B. Hrvatin wrote a thought-provoking chapter on the process of media liberalisation or rather about its failure to assure freedom of expression in Slovenia. She clearly shows not only that state interference with the larges national newspapers is still overwhelming, but also that “…it was politics itself that ousted the media from the public sphere and pushed it into the political sphere. The media turned into the “Media Party”, one which does not run in the elections and is not influenced by voters but nevertheless wields immense political power.” (p. 170.)

The chapter on education written by Leopoldina Plut-Pregelj addresses problems that are not only Slovenian, but truly regional in nature. In the beginning of the 1990s we were left with an educational system that was neither efficient in transferring valuable knowledge nor capable of enhancing civic culture and democratic values. It had to be deprived of what was left of Marxism-Leninism in its content and structure, but does it necessarily mean introducing new ideology into it? Shall conservativism, the Church, patriotism or individualism simply replace Socialism in the textbooks? What about moral education in a world uncertain of itself? Education is an important factor in the labour market, but also in creating new social environment. The study clearly demonstrates that although intentions for reforms have not been lacking, however these did not succeed in breaking with old methods that are doomed to failure in the new environment.

The last two chapters deal with problems where typical “Post-Communist” attitudes appear. Gender is a controversial issue since many socialist constitutions acknowledged equality of workers, including women. However, it was not acceptable for such regimes if women wanted to consider themselves as a special group and not only as workers. Feminism was considered to be a bourgeois, egoist radicalism. Some wide-spread notions of gender equality still reflect this heritage. At the same time, it is clear that some rights that were granted to women during the Socialist era seem untouchable to this day. These are the right to abortion and the right to paid employment. The letter is a widely accepted norm and this explains why MPs rejected so firmly the idea of motherhood becoming a payed profession.

Perhaps, the most interesting aspect of the study of Milica G. Antic is that traditional family values are reaffirmed and not threatened by recent developments. Divorce is on the decline in Slovenia in general, and especially among couples with more than one child. Antic finds that family as an institution is not disappearing in Slovenia, but it has become more dynamic: “People value family life and have high expectations from it; hence, they marry, divorce, and remarry or stay single but have children.” (p. 221.)

The final chapter of the volume is on homosexuality and homophobia. In the course of the studies it was stated on more than one occasion that citizens of the former Socialist states are more intolerant towards sexual and religious minorities than Western European societies. In his chapter Roman Kuhar is also highly critical of the situation and calls the issue a Litmus test for democracy. In this respect the results are ambiguous. On the one hand, the Slovenian legal system is fairly protective of gays and lesbians, although there is a marked difference between the rights of homosexual and heterosexual couples. More important is the fact that public opinion is decisively intolerant and this view is enforced by the Catholic Church and not countered by the media. These would probably hold true for all the countries that share the broad historical experience of Slovenia in the past 50 years. However, I think Roman Kuhar underestimates the factor emphasized earlier by Mitja Hafner-Fink: traditional value systems prevail in these societies as a consequence of late, imperfect or state-based modernisation. It is this value-system that makes Slovenes disgusted of homosexuals and not simply current policy-choices of the Church or of the media.

In summary, Democratic Transition in Slovenia is a remarkable attempt to understand as well as to present political culture and policy options. The studies published here are mostly of very high quality and they are designed to initiate further reflection on the issues discussed. One can surely find bias and hurried conclusions in it or arguably false reasoning, yet, the idea behind the project may be taken as an example for studies written on other countries of the former “Eastern Block”.  


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