Slovenia | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

With an area of 20,273 square kilometers (7,827 square miles), Slovenia is situated on the southeastern side of the Alps in southeastern Europe, bordering Italy, Austria, Croatia, and Hungary. Its capital is Ljubljana. The population of Slovenia was estimated at 2,011,473 in July 2004; the country is ethnically homogeneous, with 92 percent of the population being Slovene. Estimated per capita income in 2003 was $18,300. Slovenia has a functional market economy.

The Slavic ancestors of modern-day Slovenes settled in the area in the sixth century. The territory of twenty-first-century Slovenia was part of the Habsburg Empire until 1918, when the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was established under the crown of the Serbian monarch. During World War II (1939–1945) Slovenia joined other constituent republics in forging a federation under the communist leadership of Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980).

After Tito's death Yugoslavia gradually disintegrated into its constituent subnational units, and on May 25, 1991, Slovenia declared its independence from Yugoslavia, with that independence becoming effective after a ten-day conflict with the Serb-dominated remnant of Yugoslavia.

After declaring independence, Slovenia established a parliamentary democracy under a constitution adopted on December 23, 1991. It gained diplomatic recognition by the European Union (EU) on January 15, 1992, and was admitted to the United Nations (UN) in that year. As of 2004 Slovenia was also a member of the Council of Europe (CoE), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Legislative power in Slovenia is vested in the bicameral National Assembly (Skupcina Slovenije), which is made up of a State Chamber or Parliament (Drzavni Zbor) of ninety representatives elected by proportional representation for four-year terms and a Senate or State Council (Drzavni Svet), which mainly

has an advisory role, elected indirectly by an electoral college for five-year terms. The president of the republic is elected in a general election, but his or her role is largely ceremonial. Executive power is vested in the government, whose head, the prime minister, is nominated by the president of the republic. The prime minister nominates a Council of Ministers that is elected by the parliament and that controls public administration. Judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court (whose judges are elected by the National Assembly on the recommendation of the Judicial Council) and lesser courts, whereas the constitution and fundamental rights are safeguarded by the Constitutional Court (whose judges are elected for nine-year terms by the National Assembly on the nomination of the president).

The principal political figures since independence have included Milan Kucan (b. 1941), former president of the state and reformed communist leader who led the country to independence; the president elected in 2002, Janez Drnovsek (b. 1950), a former member of the Yugoslav collective presidency and former prime minister of Slovenia; and Anton Rop (b. 1960), leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and the prime minister elected in 2002. In the October 2000 elections the major parties were the Liberal Democratic Party (LDS) with 36 percent of the vote, the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia (SDS) with 16 percent, the United List of Social Democrats (ZLSD) with 12 percent, the Slovene People's Party (SLS/SKD) with 10 percent, and the New Slovenia (NSI) with 9 percent.

European Union; Parliamentary Systems.

Bassin, Peter. "The (Lost) Gifts of Independence and Market Economy of Slovenia." Washington University Journal of Law and Policy 3 (2000):841.

Fink-Hafner, Danica, and Milica G. Antic. "The 2002 Presidential Elections in Slovenia." Electoral Studies 23, no. 1 (March 2004):167–172.

Gow, James, and Cathie Carmichael. Slovenia and the Slovenes: A Small State and the New Europe. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.

Harris, Erika. Nationalism and Democratisation: Politics of Slovakia and Slovenia. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2002.

Lindstrom, Nicole. "Rethinking Sovereignty: The Politics of European Integration in Slovenia." Fletcher Forum of World Affairs 24 (2000):31.

"The Opinions of the Badinter Arbitration Committee: A Second Breath for the Self-Determination of Peoples." European Journal of International Law 3, no. 1 (1992):Appendix. <http://www.ejil.org/journal/Vol 3/No1/art13.html>.

"Slovenia." CIA World Factbook. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2005. <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publicat ions/factbook/geos/si.html>.

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