Slovakia

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Slovakia is a landlocked republic in Central Europe, bounded on the northwest by the Czech Republic, on the north by Poland, on the east by Ukraine, on the south by Hungary, and on the southwest by Austria. The capital and the largest city is Bratislava.

Slovaks comprise about 86 percent of the country's inhabitants. Other minorities include Hungarians, Roma (Gypsies), Czechs, Ukrainians, Poles, and Germans. The estimated population in 2003 was 5.4 million. The religious composition is Roman Catholic (60.3%), atheist (9.7%), and Protestant (8.4%); other religions comprise the remaining 11.6 percent.

Slovakia existed as a part of Hungary from the beginning of the tenth century until 1918, when it united with the Czech regions of Bohemia and Moravia. Slovakia declared its independence in 1939, shortly before the start of World War II (1939–1945), under pressure from German dictator Adolf Hitler (1889–1945). In 1945 it was reunited with the rest of Czechoslovakia, which was ruled by a Soviet-style communist regime. The country broke apart again in 1993, however, and Slovakia and the Czech Republic each became independent states.

Living standards declined after the 1990s in Slovakia, when the reintroduction of a market economy produced a sharp increase in unemployment and a high rate of inflation. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, tensions materialized between the Slovak government and Hungarians who resided in Slovakia. Many Hungarians complained of discrimination and pressed for educational and cultural autonomy.

The new constitution, adopted on September 1, 1992, went into effect with independence in January 1993. It declares Slovakia to be a parliamentary democracy. The first parliamentary elections for independent Slovakia were held in 1994.

The Slovakian constitution guarantees the principle of division of legislative, executive, and judiciary powers. Slovakia has a single-chamber parliament called the Slovak National Council. The parliament's 150 members are elected to four-year terms by popular vote. All citizens over the age of eighteen are eligible to vote.

The president of Slovakia is popularly elected to a five-year term. The president is responsible for naming the prime minister to head the government. The prime minister is usually the leader of the party with the majority of seats in parliament and is the real center of power in the country. The president also appoints the cabinet on the advice of the prime minister.

Slovakia has a constitutional court composed of ten judges appointed by the president and a Supreme Court composed by judges appointed by the parliament.

The 1992 constitution guarantees human freedom, rights, and liberties as they were established by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Slovak citizens enjoy a range of personal rights and liberties. The government respects the inviolability of the home, the right to privacy, and the right to move and travel freely. The constitution provides protections for marriage, parenthood, and the family. The government respects the right to assemble peacefully, petition state bodies, and associate in clubs, political parties, and trade unions. Judges, prosecutors, firefighters, and members of the armed forces may not strike. The Slovak constitution forbids the death penalty and guarantees freedom from torture and illegal imprisonment.

Freedom House rated Slovakia in 2002 as one of the world's "free" countries, assigning it the best possible rating of 1 for the freedom with which its

citizens exercise democratic political rights and the next best possible score of 2 for their exercise of civil rights and liberties on its 7-point scale. In recognition of its progress since the end of communist rule, Slovakia was one of ten countries admitted to membership in the European Union in 2004.

Czech Republic; European Union.

Freedom House. "Slovakia." Freedom in the World 2003. New York: Freedom House, 2003. <http://www.freedomhouse.org/res earch/freeworld/2004/countryratings/slo vakia.htm>.

Leff, Carol Skalnik. The Czech and Slovak Republics: Nation Versus State. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Economic Survey: Slovak Republic 2004. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2004. <http://www.oecd.org/document/39 /0,2340,en_2649_201185_26233063_1_1_1_1 ,00.html>.

"Slovakia." CIA World Factbook 2004. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2004. <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publicat ions/factbook/geos/lo.html>.

Smith, Adrian. Reconstructing the Regional Economy: Industrial Transformation and Regional Development in Slovakia. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 1998.

Smith, Simon. Local Communities and Post-Communist Transformation: Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. London: Routledge Curzon, 2003.

World Bank. Slovak Republic: Living Standards, Employment and Labor Market Study. Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2002.

World Bank. Slovak Republic—Joining the EU: A Development Policy Review. Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2003.

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